


Not Now

by Rainbow820



Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Lots of page breaks and time jumps, M/M, MCU setting, Made Up Science, Marvel Reverse Big Bang 2019, Mutual Pining, Slow Burn, Vampires, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-22
Updated: 2019-12-22
Packaged: 2021-02-18 16:15:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 23,688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21780271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rainbow820/pseuds/Rainbow820
Summary: In 1935 Germany was at a high point of turmoil, and a young man named Brock wanted to help his country be ready to fight for the inevitable war. He finds himself in a spiral of violence and terror with the Nazi’s science and weapons department, who uses him as a weapon.Decades after the war, HYDRA is not gone, and Brock leads a team of anti-terrorism for the American government. He is sent to collect an asset, one Jack Rollins, who has been recorded as turning into a wolf according to roadside surveillance.These two men war with their feelings for each other. While also dealing with the persistence goal HYDRA has of destroying the world. Throw in some threats from outer space and it is really not the best time to fall in love.
Relationships: (background), Brock Rumlow/Jack Rollins, James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers
Kudos: 9
Collections: Marvel Reverse Big Bang 2019





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Not Now](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/544090) by kalika_999. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before the story begins, I would like to start by thanking the people without whom this would not have been possible. 
> 
> First of all, the mods who are incredibly excellent at making sure everything gets done, I could never with a project this big. 
> 
> I would especially like to thank the mod of stars for drawing the banner for Not Now. 
> 
> I want to thank my beta Dani for making this story readable; lord knows my grammar is atrocious. Any mistakes are mine and mine alone. 
> 
> And I would like to shout out my artist who inspired this work, kalika_999, seriously go check out their work if you like Hydra Husband’s it’s incredible. They have been my cheerleader throughout this and incredibly awesome to bounce ideas off of. It has been fantastic working with them. I hope I get to do so again in the future. 
> 
> Now without further ado, I present you- Not Now.

****

**[Hydra Husbands by:](https://i.imgur.com/mtbUyVf.png) [kalika_999](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kalika_999/pseuds/kalika_999)**

**  
  
**

**January 3, 2007: Northern California**

A hiker hears a howl and sighs grabbing his pocket knife and placing it in his front jacket pocket, easier to grab. He hopes he doesn't run into that wolf- wherever that sound is coming from. He keeps going hoping to make camp before the next morning. The moon is in the sky bright and full, but he has hiked these trails in the dark a hundred times. He almost doesn't even need his flashlight at this point, but the path has lots of roots.

He makes it to a clearing and a growl much louder sounds, and the hiker feels his spine shake with the force of it. He freezes, setting his pack down and grabbing his blade. Turning his light lands on a massive animal. A wolf whose eyes meet his directly large and yellow pointy teeth and light brown fur. It's a monster, the hiker screams as the wolf jumps. 

\--

Brock Rumlow sighs as he brings his car to a stop in front of the fence into the forest. He steps out to stare at the trees that stretch on and on. The sun is peeking through the trees, sunrise.

He throws a backpack over his shoulders and squints into the sun raising his head up and steps over the fence before he walked into the forest. 

Brock is not a camper or hiker, he was a special agent in charge of protecting the homeland from threats. 

He was sent very often to collect allies for "SHIELD" for his "STRIKE" team. Brock himself was over all of all the acronyms. It is and always has been a stupid organization in his mind; after all, it was so easy to infiltrate at the start. 

* * *

**1932: Nuremberg, Germany**

Thirty-five-year-old Brockaert Müller walks into a Nazi laboratory. He would change his name multiple times as his life continued, but his nickname, Brock, he would keep. The last part of his identity that would be his own. 

Hydra, Hitler's scientists, promise to make him stronger. He wants to defend his country from war. Hitler has promised them there will be no war, but he is not so foolish as his fellow Germans. 

Brock had fought in the war for Germany once, and he could see one was going to follow. His country is angry, and his people are suffering. Brock walks after a guard, one at his back guns out. They enter a bunker, and he sees the Nazi flag on the all but another it looks like an octopus with skulls on end. 

"Welcome to Hydra," a guard says, seeing him stare at the flag. 

"That is not a hydra," Brock blurts out a laugh rings out. It is cold despite the amusement it is filled with. 

"I too thought that was ridiculous," the same voice says, it is not a german accent. Swiss maybe, Brock thinks to turn to face him

He is much shorter than Brock himself with large round glasses that make his eyes look massive and a rounder figure than most germans. 

"Dr. Armin Zola. And you are?" he asks, holding a hand out. 

"Brock Müller," Brock responds, taking his hand, and the Doctor's smile widens. 

"Ah Brockaert, we have been expecting you please," the Doctor says and leads him to a separate room. 

His blood is taken, and then he is made to wait to stare at a wall with propaganda posters on them for who knows how long. 

The Doctor returns with assistants, and he raises an eyebrow as they have him lie down on the bed. He is strapped down by the arms and legs while they speak Swiss above him. He recognizes a few similar words to German but gives up drowning out their words to try and relax. 

He agreed to this. His country, despite what the Fuhrer says, will be going to war, and he wants to be ready. Able to fight better than he did last time when he was a young man. 

He brings his attention to the doctors when he is presented with needles, and Brock watches the liquid squirt out the ends as they go for his bicep.

Brock stares as they inject him with things and closes his eyes. He does not want to know what they are. 

It hurts, but he does not scream- he can not cry. It feels like his blood is on fire, and then he can not see anything. 

* * *

**2007: Northern California**

Brock blinks, taking in the woods once more and follows the scent of blood. He feels the smell get closer and the pounding of a steady heartbeat pulsing blood through a live body. Brock grins; he is close to his goal. 

He comes across a dead body and a younger man, taller than Brock himself, sitting in a mess. His hair was a mess, and he is covered in blood. Brock yearns for the spilled blood on the ground, but he has had a very long time to control his urges. 

"Getaway," the man growls, and Brock rolls his eyes. "I'm serious dude, you have no idea what I am capable of," he warns. 

Brock squats, staring into his eyes and smirks. "I know that the full moon just passed, so you're not at your strongest. Here," he says, tossing him a black sweatshirt and sweatpants. 

The man catches them and scowls. "Who are you?" He sneers.

"How rude of me, Jack, my name is Brock Rumlow, and I work for the Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Division," Brock drawls out. 

"Does that stand for SHIELD?" Jack asks, squinting. "And wait, why do you know my name?" He says, scrambling back. 

"Did you not hear what I said? We watch out for potential threats on the homeland, and you just said so yourself, Jack, you're dangerous. I bet you don't even know what you're capable of," Brock smirks, extending a hand. "We can help you," Brock promises. 

Jack looks up at him and grabs his forearms, letting Brock pull him up. He nods and clenches his jaw and stands straight up. He was ready to learn. "I want to know what I am," Jack tells him. 

"Sure, but let's start with the clothes, hmm," Brock says and starts walking back the way he came.

He listens to the sound of rustling fabric and hurried footsteps rushing after him. 

* * *

**1932: Nuremberg, Germany**

Brock wakes up, and he is in no pain at all, not like liquid fire he felt how hot he was right before it all went black. He turns his head away from the light as it glints into his eyes, and he hears their whispers like knives in his ears.

Brock turns his head to see a handsome man with dark eyes and a sharp face. He is by the Doctor, and he looks like he is chewing on a lemon his lips pursed eyes narrowed. 

The Doctor drags a younger man forward with a red sash on, a communist. Brock gasps as his blood is spilled, and it smells like heaven. He launches forward at him, and he hears the sound of metal tearing and sinks his teeth into the man. 

The so-called number one threat to Germany. Brock raises his eyes, blood dripping off his chin, and he sees his eyes filled with red and his incisors pointed, almost touching his bottom lip. 

"Subject shows a desire for blood," Herr Doctor says with a grin, and Brock feels better, but he wants to faint to curl away from them and sleep. 

Of course, he is not awarded that luxury but dragged out into the hallway and told to run. He jerks and falls into the wall opposite of where he was just standing. He feels like he's being pressed on by weights, and it hurts everything hurts again. 

He feels every point of contact with the wall, and he cries out, falling to the ground. 

"Subject shows hypersensitivity and increased speed," the Doctor says, and when a knife is thrown, Brock moves his head, and it flies by him. "Hyper reflexes as well," the doctor notes grinning darkly. 

Brock holds his hands over his ears, which feel literally like the glass is being shoved through them every time noise is made. 

"Make it stop," Brock sobs out, digging his fingernails into his arms. His skin splits like warm butter and heals faster than it opens. 

"Fascinating," the taller man says, coming to kneel beside Brock while Doctor Zola continues to make notes. "My name is Herr Schmidt. I am the leader of Hydra. You are going to help us save Germany, my boy," he grins, and Brock tries to curl away from him. 

The sound of his voice combined with the pound of his heart so close is like a bomb going off. His blood so close- so warm. He feels his teeth brush his lip, and his vision focuses on the pulse in his neck. 

A light is shone in his face, and as if he was a cat, he hisses in response. He shocks himself out of his focus on the rush of blood. 

* * *

**2007: Northern California**

"You know who I am, what I am?" Jack asks as they drive onto the main road. 

"Yes, I do, I bet you have no clue though" Brock smirks. 

"Well, no, I started to feel awful this month, and then I last night. I don't know what I was," Jack whispers. 

"Been bitten by anything lately?" Brock smirks. 

"This like, massive dog, but it was barely even a knick," Jack responds, lifting a water bottle to his lips.

"Yeah, just even a little bit of venom and hello werewolf curse," Brock says, and Jack chokes on the water he just to a swig of. 

"I'm sorry what in the fuck," Jack coughs. Brock laughs and speeds up as he looks over at the GPS. 

"You are a werewolf now, Jack, but we're going to help you out," Brock promises him, and Jack leans back in his seat, feeling sick. 

"Those don't exist," he argues weakly. Brock rolls his eyes and pats his shoulder. 

"I know it's a weird thought, but you're a werewolf now. Don't believe me, and we'll show you a couple dozen blood tests" Brock smirks at him, and Jack nods. 

"I ok, ok," Jack breathes out harshly, bracing his hands against the dashboard, and it cracks. 

"Hey," Brock cries out, trying to sound annoyed, but he laughs after seeing Jack turn bright pink. 

"I am so sorry," Jack gasps out, shocked, and sets his hands in his lap. 

"Government car, I don't care. Oh god, I needed that today" Brock laughs. Usually, the assets turned out to be super trained incredibly dangerous spies or bat shit insane and murderous. Jack was clearly neither of those. 

This could be a lot of fun. 

* * *

**1933: Berlin, Germany**

Brock is brought into a HYDRA science base in the capitol. They use his blood to make more like him. They are weaker the further from his blood they make them, so they try to use his for all new creations. 

Herr Doctor is pleased with the result, but always a month after their creation, Brock's blood fails them. They die vomiting up blood, their eyes and ears dripping blood. 

Brock watches them die one after the other he has no attachment to them, but watching them fall apart so regularly dampens the Doctor's spirit. He is told to stop by Schmidt, who has new plans, and Brock is left to be probed by other scientists. 

Since the first feed, all he has are bags of blood. He knows not who they are from, but the blood strengthens him more than food ever did. 

They call him vampire, but all he does is drink blood and heal at astonishing rates. The sun causes him no pain; wooden stakes hurt as they would if he was human, but he recovers quickly. 

Hydra is nothing if not thorough. They tell him they will know all he is capable of. 

"We have a task for you," the Doctor tells him, and Brock looks up, anything to get out of this fucking lab. 

"How may I help, Doctor?" Brock asks him standing. The doctor waves to a guard who puts a hand on the doorknob but does not open it. 

"We want you to manage our bases, travel back and forth, assess their functionality," the Doctor explains. 

"Easy enough," Brock nods. 

"We will be assigning your partner. They will assess your capabilities and you theirs," the Doctor explains. 

"What is his name?" Brock asks.

"Cynthia Schmidt, call me Sin," a woman with hair so red it looks like candy. Her eyes are so light blue; they could almost be called white. 

"Herr Skull's daughter?" Brock exclaims in surprise.

She flashes him a dark grin. "Again, I prefer Sin," she half growls. She steps forward and extends a hand. 

"Brock," he introduces himself and shakes her hand she has a firm grip, and he nods to her. 

* * *

**2007: Washington, D.C.**

Jack closes his eyes, frustrated as he leans against a wall. 

He had been at this for three months, and he still could not on command make his fangs appear. It only happens when he's angry. 

He hears someone walk up next to him, but it's muffled. "You gotta focus," the voice tries soothing, it's Brock. 

"What do you think I've been doing" Jack snaps and a hand landed on his shoulder before traveling up his neck and tilting his head up. 

"Listen to me, Rollins. You are trying to focus on everything you need to focus your mind. Listen to my voice right now focus on the vibrations of it," Brock says fingers firm and cold on his jaw. 

"I hear you," Jack says. A cold finger is pressed against his lips. 

"Just listen," Brock orders voice softer. "You need to be ready to act, not always acting. Be calm and kind to your mind. You won't get anywhere beating yourself up about this. Jack, you are the same person, just a little different. You know how you think, how you work. Just let your mind do what it needs to; it's going to wonder if it's your job to direct your focus," Brock tells him. 

Jack isn't focusing on his words but the feel of his fingers caressing his jaw and the timbre of his voice vibrating through Jack's chest. 

He recognized right away how attractive Brock was but now so close to him touching him. Spending time with him and his sincerity was moving Jack. 

He opens his eyes to meet Brock's who grins and steps back.

"Hey, there yellow eyes," he whispers, turning him to a gym mirror. 

Jack gasps, and when his mouth opens, he sees four long teeth and his jaw extended. 

"Well, I'm certainly not regular," Jack laughs awkwardly.

"No, you're not" Brock nods and pats his cheek in more of a caress than a friendly tap. "You're amazing, Rollins. Simply extraordinary. Now just focus on whatever you need to do this when you're asked," Brock says, and he's back to trainer mode mumbling on about fighting techniques.

Jack has never had to fight before this. His tall, serious persona never attracted violence or anything of the sort. He also never lived in a place with that many people. 

Now he was making his body a weapon, and he could disarm someone of any guns and takedown way more people at once than he thought possible. Brock warns him of becoming cocky, reminding him that despite his enhanced strength, trained combatants will prove a threat and if underestimated, a fatal threat. 

First things first, let's see if he can do the whole wolf face without Brock's hands on him.

* * *

**2008: Washington, D.C.**

Jack fights against Brock on a training mat. He had to go against the whole team if he wanted to join them. He was told most assets were not placed on permanent teams but free to move amongst them. 

Jack wanted to be on STRIKE if it had to do with spending time with Brock sue him. 

In the past year training with Brock, he has grown to like the shorter agent who is never without an easy grin a snide comment to add. Jack wants to be apart of his team because he also knows Brock does excellent work. 

Jack adds a rush of strength, and Brock seems to unlock his legs slightly before he is pinned to the ground. Did he just let him win? 

The director nods to Brock, who sits up and shakes Jack's hand. "Welcome to STRIKE, Rollins" Brock grins at him. 

The director leaves, and Jack rounds on Brock. "You let me win," Jack accuses. 

"My legs cramped" Brock lies, and he lies terribly he didn't even try. 

"Why would you do that," Jack says with a frown did Brock not think he was kind enough, no than why would he have thrown the match to let him in. 

"You can beat me, Jack, no way I could hold up against those wolf muscles. However, I was not really that interested in a long gladiatorial display. Not when I know you are good enough, more than good enough to be on my team," Brock says, and Jack narrows his eyes. 

"Were you worried I couldn't beat you" Jack demands. 

"What Jack I literally just said I couldn't beat you," Brock scoffs. Jack steps closer to him, a smirk on his face. 

"Then let's go because I want to know," Jack demands, and Brock rolls his eyes. 

"I don't need to fight you, Rollins, let's go out with the team" Brock scoffs, and a firm hand claps on his shoulder. 

"I said let's go," Jack growls darkly eyes turning yellow. Brock rips his arm off and shoves him back. 

"Fine," Brock scoffs, annoyed if he wanted to be that way, then Brock was going to give as good as he gets. 

Jack leaps at him, and Brock rolls out of the way. He could take Jack down without much struggle at all, but then he would give himself away. 

He blocks the hits, but Jack is getting too aggressive; his eyes are also yellow. Brock lashes out, grabbing him by the neck and leaping up, swinging his legs around onto his shoulders. Traditionally it is a feminine fighting move that he knows will throw Jack off. 

Sin taught him how and the only other man he saw perform it was Steve Rogers, who was clearly not trained with the rest of the squad he moved like a dancer. 

* * *

**1943: Hydra Weapons Facility, Austria**

Brock listens as the alarms are sounded and glance at Sin before he goes to the control room. She goes for the security cameras to see what is going on. 

He waits for her, and his packset crackles with her voice, saying the prisoners have been freed. He sees Herr Schmidt on the landing nod to him, and Brock nods, flipping all the switches ready to blow the place sky-high. 

He watches them fall from the landing the explosion rocked the ground. The man Doctor Zola was obsessed with lands on the other man's chest. 

"Stevie," he groans, and Brock marches forward, pulling a gun. The man, Steve, Brock assumes with blond hair and blue eyes ironic reaches up and crushes the firearm. 

Brock tosses the scrap to the side, and like an animal, the golden super-soldier is crouched over the Doctor's new project. 

He leaps forward, and Brock dodges knowing holding back will get him dead. Actually he has no clue if he can die, but he is not in the mood to find out. 

Brock lashes out, slamming his fist against the soldier who rarely reacts moving and kicking. Jumping and spinning, pushing Broke away from his friend. He moves like he is in a dance and without hesitation in his movements as he advances. 

Fire is curling around them all the while the heat overbearing, and Brock hates the heat bearing down on his undead skin. The soldier launches at him and wraps his legs around his neck, bringing him crashing to the ground before the legs are replaced by arms holding his neck. 

"Back off or pretty boy gets it" Sin's cold voice rings out, and she is holding a gun over the man's face, a boot planted on his chest. 

Her hair red like the curl of the flames she glares at them hand on the trigger. Steve pulls himself back, clearly planning to kill them. 

Sin fires behind Steve, who is blown forward by it and Brock crouches to avoid debris. He grabs Sin and rushes them to a back wall not yet covered in flames. She blasts the wall open, and they step out the smell blood slamming into Brock. 

His fangs come out, but he gets knocked on the side of the head with Sin's gun. "Come on," she orders and starts marching to a car. 

They take a car that is not blown to bits, and they speed away from the burning building towards an airport. They have a plane to catch towards Switzerland. 

* * *

**2008: Washington, D.C.**

Brock pulls away from Jack once he goes down and kneels beside him. "Not now, Jack, you wanna fight, we'll fight. But now I wanna drink with my team," Brock says, and Jack glares after him as he leaves the room. 

He pulls himself off the ground and follows after Brock wincing as he did before the pain fades. He went down hard Brock squeezes tight with his thighs. 

Drinking with the team is fun. Jack will admit. Clint, in particular, is drunk as hell and has turned off his hearing aids to make a game out of trying to read lips while impaired. They discovered that even drunk, he can hit a bullseye on the dartboard. 

\-- 

Jack groans his head, pounding, and he turns to see Clint up and dressed. He's on a training mat in the STRIKE wing. 

"GOOD MORNING," Clint shouts, clapping his hands. Brock grumbles at him rolling over. 

"Have fun in Budapest," he growls. Clint was off to catch the Black Widow right, well he can sleep the hangover off in the plane. 

They make their way out of the building, and Jack stares in his locker. Inside was the keys to a SHIELD sanctioned apartment in D.C., where he will have everything he needs for furniture. 

He gets a taxi and trudges into a said new apartment and flops onto a bare mattress. He really should not have drunk so much. Who was he to know that wolf healing didn't help a hangover. 

* * *

**3 Weeks Later: Washington, D.C.**

Clint runs up to Brock, and he levels him with a bored look when he slams into him. Brock doesn't budge but curls a hand in Clint's t-shirt to keep him from crashing into the ground. 

"Oh shut up," Clint says and grabs him by the shoulders. "My hit, the Black Widow, I can bring her over, but my word is nothing to the council who want her dead. You're the leader of this team Brock, please," Clint says, and Brock pulls Clint closer and looks him dead in the eye.

He listens to the pound of Clint's heart and lays a hand on his shoulder. "She goes bad on us Barton, you clean up the mess" Brock orders and pulls away from Clint. Brock pulls his phone out and stares at Clint. 

"Director, I need to speak with you about Widow," Brock says, and Clint looks shocked.

"Just like that," Clint whispers, and Brock holds a hand up, silencing him before walking away. 

\--

Black Widow is brought in to the team, and she has sharp eyes; she's a killer.

Natasha glances over the group and looks to Clint; he said he would get her brought in, but he seemed to be a follower, not a leader.

She glances over the crew and decides this is America. It'll be a man. The tall one who's quite perhaps. 

A man with dark hair beams at Clint, and they seem to talk without a word. "Agent Romanoff welcome to STRIKE," he says and reaches out a hand. He doesn't even go to take her pulse. 

Friendly bright eyes a relaxed smile and posture, he couldn't be the leader. The others with their hands trained on weapons all seem most likely, but he does stand out.

"Boss you're the best," Clint says, and Natasha is shocked but does not let it show eyes trained on him still.

How was he so relaxed beside her, according to Clint, he put his position on the line for her.

"Thank you for your trust," Natasha says.

"Not in you, in Clint. If he says you're good, I trust him," Brock says and looks at his team. "They've all earned my trust, and I know you will too if you won over Hawkeye. But it's the people at the top the old men with fears of the word Russian. It's them, you and I have to convince," Brock warns her, his natural smile dropping. 

"Then I'll do what you need me to. So I can stay here with Clint," Natasha says, and Brock's lips twitch smirking at Clint, who rolls his eyes. 

"I think it'll all be fine, Romanoff" Brock laughs, and she looks him over.

"Call me Natasha," she says. She could take the first step if Clint was willing to follow him, so was she.

"Ok, Natasha," he agrees and turns to the team. 

"This is Jack Rollins" he starts with smiling softer at the man before he moves to the next person. 

Natasha notes how he reacts to them all. He likes Clint that much is undeniable, and he cares for the tallest man. The rest of the team she senses and he are work friends but nothing more. Trusting each other with their lives has not bloomed further than that.

She goes to fight him, and she knows when someone is holding back, but no matter how far she pushes, no matter how many times to hits him, there is no snap. 

No show of strength or speed or skill. He's holding back on purpose with extreme reserve. She will keep an eye on him; something about him is off to her.

\-- 

Jack groans as he walks from the showers, Natasha certainly did not play nice with them. In fact, she wiped the floor with them minus Clint, who was trained in fighting similar to hers. 

She still managed to kick his ass in the end, however. He is walking towards the exit when Jasper Sitwell waves him over. 

"Rollins, I have something to talk to you about," Sitwell says. 

"Yes, sir, what is it?" Jack asks. 

"Rumlow didn't brief you?" Sitwell wonders. 

"About?" Jack prompts, and Sitwell purses his lips and leads Jack to his office. He takes off his glasses and lets his eyes be scanned, so the door slides open. 

"Project Insight, agent. I want to bring you in on it," he grins sharply, sitting at his desk and gesturing to the chair in front of the desk. 

Jack swallows and sits down, knowing whatever this is, it is about to be way above his clearance level. 


	2. Chapter 2

**1972: New York City, Manhattan**

Brock walks out of his bedroom towards the fridge. His apartment was sweltering here. Summertime in New York City who would have thought so up North would be hot.

The 70s were an exciting time, to say the least after the sixties. The war was going off course, and people sure hate that. Sin is lying on the couch in nothing but a towel, her wet hair plastered to her skin as she fans herself with the newspaper.

Brock pulls out a blood bag and sits on the couch, putting her feet on his lap. Only in boxers and a t-shirt, she presses her sweating feet to his undead ice cold legs and sighs.

“Brock, I want to move to the North Pole. I need it to be cold like always,” Sin says, letting the newspaper fall to the ground.

“If it is too cold for you, I can’t help” Brock smiles at her and she groans.

“You know we’ve known each other what almost forty years, and you still won’t let me complain without inserting some logic into it. Leave me be,” Sin demands, and Brock shushes her, hearing someone at the door.

“Who is it?” Brock calls once they knock. They respond in german HYDRA code, and they both grit their teeth.

Doc joined SHIELD, got them brought over to America, and hasn’t spoken to them since. They are done with this nazi crap, and Zola said he was too.

“Fuck off,” Sin calls rolling off the couch and grabbing her pistol in the coffee table drawer.

They kick the door open only to be pushed against the wall by Brock and for two more people to rush in. “You kidding me?” Sin demands while looking at Brock.

“It’s a busy hallway,” he defends himself, and she pulls the gun up, but they also have guns. Brock snaps the neck of the one against the wall and speeds to the next wrestling the gun away shoving him to the ground.

Sin throws her gun, hitting the last guy in the face only for him to get back up and pick the weapons up. Brock moves to help, but she whips her towel off and smacks him across the face before slamming her feet into his chest and bashing his head in with the gun.

Brock hands her the towel again and starts searching for them. She goes and gets dressed before crouching over the guy she killed and finding Zola’s calling card.

“He wants us back in,” Sin breathes out.

“No,” Brock declares, shaking his head. “I want nothing to do with it,” Brock vows.

“You think I do? My jackass dad made me be his perfect soldier. It seems to me like the last thing we need to do is be apart of another fanatical secret government organization” Sin scoffs.

“Well, we gotta move,” Brock sighs and turns away their blood all over his hands, making his fangs grow. He vowed never to feed on a person once they left HYDRA. Blood bags would suffice for him. He doesn’t need anything else anyway.

* * *

**2009: Washington, D.C.**

Brock finds the file on his desk when he walks in. Great, they have to go find Tony Stark as if half the world isn’t looking for him right now. Why not throw another government agency in on it. Surely with no extra intel, STRIKE will be able to find this grain of sand in a desert.

Brock has his team get ready to go and meet them on the runway. Natasha walks up next to him, drinks for them all in hand. “Clint paid me a hundred bucks for this,” she smirks, and Brock chuckles, taking her bag so she can pass out the drinks.

After securing everything, Natasha hands him his drink, and Brock goes to the co-pilot seat. Clint chugs his coffee, tosses his cup behind him, which lands into the trash bag secured to the wall and closes the back door.

Brock smiles at Jack, who smiles back and does up his seat belt. Clint starts them down the runway once the tower gives them the clear, and the plane shoots off.

Once they level out in the sky, Clint triple checks the destination point before switching on autopilot and alert warning system.

Brock walks back to check on the team and gives them a better briefing of what he knows and ask them if they have anything new to add.

“Not just that they used Stark’s own weapons. I told the tech guys to see if they might be able to track a buyer, but those missiles could have passed through a hundred people before they were fired at Stark. These were not the newest weapons,” Natasha tells them and shrugs.

“Heard from some of my military connections that Stark did not ride with his personal escort but a few soldiers,” Clint adds, and Brock sighs.

“So nothing that would give us his location,” Brock nods.

“Any known groups that have used Stark weapons in the past?” Mace asks, adjusting his suit. They call him Patriot in the field, Brock doesn’t like the chain of command it makes them feel like less of a team more of a unit. But everyone knows if Brock is not available, Jeffery Mace is the de facto leader.

Brock doesn’t do sick days, so unless he has to be on a solo mission, he is with the team.

“None that have been noted by any governments,” Natasha tells him before looking at the computers. “I can have the guns look for any signal on Stark equipment. But we’re moving pretty fast and Clint you have the sharpest eye,” she says, and Clint nods.

“Fine, Davis, you keep an eye on the flight plan and radio. You’ll land us” Brock orders, and Davis nods, climbing into the pilot seat and taking over the controls.

Brock nods to Jack and Mace having them follow him to the back of the plane. “Boss?” Mace asks him.

“They don’t expect us to find Stark, they expect us to find out who took him and how they got his weapons. SHIELD needs Tony Stark’s work, not him, so the team and I will be looking for Stark. Natasha can pick I know Fury already briefed her, which is why she already did a lot of research on this. If you find out, do not engage or do anything with the information. You tell Fury and me in person at the same time when you report got it?” Brock asks of them whispering.

“Why the secrecy?” Jack wonders, and Mace looks at him like he is crazy.

“Because these are dangerous people, and I need you two alive to tell me what you know,” Brock answers, frowning.

“I mean from the team,” Jack sighs. Mace looks ready to speak up, but Brock lays a hand on Jack’s soldier.

“Not now Rollins, I’ll debrief you once we finish the mission. Promise,” Brock smiles weakly before walking towards the front of the plane again.

“Why are you questioning Boss, you don’t trust him?” Mace demands.

“I trust him with my life. But I would like to know the motivations behind what I am doing. As far as I know, I haven’t joined the military,” Jack scoffs and walks away from Mace.

Sitwell told him who he could trust on the team. It consisted of most of the ones left behind. He works with the Alpha force team. The team is made up of Brock, who covers all the units, Jeff Mace, a relentless patriot hence his code name, Davis the pilot and a hydra follower, and Clint, who is a better pilot and better weapons guy but strictly loyal to SHIELD. Natasha is loyal to Clint and far to Russian for HYDRA to even consider her.

Jack was told Brock would be his ally. However, he seems to not want to bring Jack into his inner circle nor Davis. He trusts Mace and Barton with his secrets and now Natasha. Jack feels jealous and growls leaning against the wall of the ship before he notices Brock staring.

Jack blinks, realizing he was seeing things tinted yellow, he really needs to control himself better. He doesn’t know why he cares so much if Brock places his trust in others because Jack knows logically that Brock does trust him, cares about him if not for him.

He doesn’t understand why the trust in the three members of the team who were not on their side.

Hours later, Davis says they are going in for a landing. Natasha returns, saying neither she nor Clint spotted anything Stark related the entire way. When they leave the plane, Natasha walks beside Mace, telling Brock that she has no interest in joining them in the desert. She has spy work to do, they can play their wild goose game under the sweltering sun.

\--

Unsurprisingly to Brock, they do not find Stark, but Natasha gives Brock a firm nod telling him they found out all they need to know.

The team returns to America and goes for the briefing. “We discovered that the weapons were sold directly from Stark industries to the terrorist group known as the five rings. The money was a direct deposit into the Stark Industry’s bank account confirmed recently by someone in our financial espionage department,” Mace reports to Fury. 

Natasha is silent. She, of course, found most of this, but the council was weary and told Mace to report it all. Jeff refused to take sole credit and insisted it at least be acknowledged; they all did the work. Jack feels like he is the kid who did nothing in a school presentation but shows up for it anyways. He understands the type of pull Jeff’s position has the right hand to the largest division in SHIELD, and the council likes him is even better.

“Tony Stark might have orchestrated this to increase the purchase of his weapons,” a council member suggests.

“Not to contradict, sir, while Stark may be a tech genius. He is no PR guru. He has multiple people managing him at all times. He loves the spotlight and the tabloids, not the conspiracy theories. I have no doubt this was a business deal gone wrong because Stark Industries has too many cookie jars and not enough hands. Sir” Clint cuts in with a tone to suggest he is definitely contradicting. 

“I see,” the council member nods humming.

“Agent Rumlow, you are being tasked with escorting Colonel Rhodes to retrieve Stark. Agent Mace you head up the connection here. Find out who in Stark Industries is responsible for this. My gut tells me Tony Stark is pure super genius and that he is not stupid enough to risk himself like this. “Fury orders, and they nod.

Brock sighs and stands nothing to him and the council who turn off their devices. “Least, I washed my travel stuff,” he grins.

“When they pick up Stark, you go for where he came from. We’ll send a transport plane after you. We don’t want the airforce in there first” Fury orders and Brock nods walking off towards his office.

Brock glances at his calendar and sighs. A full moon. He will have to leave in the morning Stark can wait a few more hours.

He throws his backpack on with all the stuff Jack will need and finds him in the hallway.

Jack starts sweating by the time they reach the woods, the sun is setting. Jack worries about hurting Brock when he turns.

Jack ignores the flush of his own cheeks as he strips down. Better than destroying more clothes.

Every full moon Brock comes out and does this for him, he hates the thought of attacking Brock.

Jack cries out in pain, curling onto the floor, and sees Brock’s frown as he watches it happen.

It kills Brock to watch Jack turn, the moon forcing him into a wolf form. He tries for control, and at least Jack has yet to attack him.

Brock watches him become a large brown haired wolf whos yellow eyes bore into his before he is gone. Brock wishes Jack didn’t have to be in so much pain when he does turn.

He hasn’t killed anybody like this since that first night. Brock trudges after him the smell of wolf and Jack extremely easy for him to track down.

He hears a howl of pain and speeds up. A hunter has stabbed Jack in the shoulder and is grinning ear to ear as Jack whimpers.

Brock sees red, literally, and launches at the hunter who’s smile drops. “Hunting at night is illegal” he snarls and opens his mouth, fangs glinting. The hunter screams in fear, and Brock stabs him with his own knife.

He steps back and walks slowly to a whimpering Jack. He tries to escort him away, but he just whines every time his leg is jostled. Brock feels pain every time Jack does, and he wonders why Jack grew on him so quickly.

Brock gets the body away and sits with Jack, who looks up at him with big yellow eyes for the whole night.

Brock watches as Jack painlessly turns human, and his shoulder is healed. “Brock?” Jack asks, staring up at his eyes now green.

Brock smiles at him and stands to pull Jack with him. “Feel okay?” Brock asks, and he seems concerned.

“Shoulders a little sore,” Jack notes and watches anger twist over Brock’s face.

“Hunter, don’t worry,” Brock says, and Jack gave him a disapproving frown before they walk back towards headquarters.

“You killed for me?” Jack asks, and Brock doesn’t respond, but the weight of his gaze nearly knocks Jack down.

Jack’s eyes widen as he follows after Brock, his heart pounding, maybe Brock likes him too.

He would try and talk to him after Brock returns from looking for Stark again.

\--

Jack breaths out as the team finishes their training, and there is a call; it’s Brock.

“Hey, boss, how you doing?” Clint asks.

“We found Stark, but I’m sure you saw that in the news,” Brock tells them and clears his throat. “How you guys doing? Fall apart without me yet,” he teases them over the radio.

“Not a chance Brock,” Jeff calls, walking closer. “Natasha and I figure it is Obadiah Stane. Fury wants to wait it out. They are trying to damage control with Stark. Still, as soon as he got back, he called a press conference canceled weapons manufacturing so we can’t rule out Stark himself, and this is a cover-up,” Jeff sighs.

“Definitely not that. Guy was shaken up as hell when he got him in the desert. Escaped himself. It took me a while to find the cave. The village burned to a crisp and every single person in the cave is dead. We’re clearing out a workshop now. Stark is definitely something else. We should be keeping a closer eye on him,” Brock tells them, and they hear a thunk of metal. “Speaking of which I have to make sure it is all undamaged as possible. Talk to you guys when I get back. Keep up the good work, Mace,” Brock says and hangs up.

Jeff looks at the team done sparring and claps his hands. “Great, we’re done for the day. Clint, you are backed up as hell on paperwork. And I have to start the daily report for the day so scram before it gets longer” Jeff grins at them, and they nod, leaving.

Jack finds out that HYDRA legitimately has zero idea why Stark was taken or what the next step is. It is genuinely a blindside to all governments, and no one likes that.

Jack has a feeling call it an instinct that Stark is about to be a bigger problem for them than they ever could have imagined him to be.

* * *

**2010: Washington, D.C.**

Brock stares at Fury as he demands Natasha be put in undercover to watch Stark. “I don’t like it. She works best with her team. She isn’t a babysitter, Director,” Brock says, standing tall. When he said SHIELD should monitor Stark, he did not mean them taking his best operative and making her a glorified nanny to a billionaire. Who plays airhead for the cameras but is a lot smarter than anyone can even imagine a person to be.

“Dammit Rumlow, This is not an option. Stark is important his work is important, just like his father used to be. If you need to see a file on what he did just for us-” Fury begins.

“I know, Director,” Brock cuts him off. He saw it first hand a long time ago. “Fine, but you are telling her and Barton,” he warns.

“Oh, I almost forgot, I need Clint in New Mexico. Recon, watch out for a team,” Fury adds, smirking, and Brock sneers.

“I want four more members,” Brock says.

“You’re losing two,” Fury counters.

“You brought up Romanoff first, I’m not getting her back. Four will sort of fill her gap. Barton is coming back, you said recon. We’ll manage without our long-distance shooter for now,” Brock tells him and turns away. “I want them in my office by tomorrow afternoon,” he calls.

Fury shakes his head. Rumlow has nerve he’ll give him that. He supposes he better find agents that won’t get shredded apart by the STRIKE team.

* * *

**January 1945: Swiss Alps**

Brock pulls the goggles tighter around his eyes. Fucking snow everywhere, he can not see a damned thing. He was told to go fetch Doctor Zola’s pet American who apparently, according to the train cameras, just fell down the mountain.

Why he had to go get a corpse was not a question he was planning on asking the Doctor. It is better off not knowing with Zola.

He narrows his eyes, looking for red. The smell of blood has not hit him yet, but the howl of the wind is so overwhelming to his senses. He is surprised that he has not passed out again.

It hits him like a train, Brock smirks at this thought, but the blood invades his brain. He locks in on it and trudges forward knee-deep in the snow now. Brock sees the poor man’s arm wedged in a crevice, body battered. He’s still breathing, holy shit how is he still alive.

Brock grabs him and pulled him up, wincing at the tear of his arm. He considers bringing it back but regards how large the American is and how deep in the snow he already is.

Brock shrugs and pulls his gun, firing it into the rock closest to him before pressing the smoldering barrel of it to the American’s arm at the source of the bleeding. It will stop him from dying on the way back, at least from blood loss.

Brock wraps his own scarf around the guy’s head and throws him over his shoulders. The smell of burnt flesh removing any desire for his blood. He returns to the base, and they medics carry the barely breathing soldier away.

Brock goes and informs the Doctor who rushes away. Sin enters the room after the Doctor with a blood bag warmed to body temperature. “Thank you, Sin,” he sighs, and she nods leaning against the window.

“Heard your rescue mission was successful. Doc was getting antsy,” Sin grins sharply.

“Believe it or not the instructions, fell from a train about here who knows where the wind took him or if he even made it all the way down, are not particularly beneficial for quick retrieval. If the guy hadn’t banged his arm up so horribly, I probably could have walked right around him without noticing,” Brock shrugs, and she nods, pulling a knife out to flip as she thinks.

“You did well though Brock,” she tells him, closing her eyes. “I’m gonna get some shut-eye before daddy dearest wants to throw me into mortal danger again” she scoffs, and Brock smiles walking to her.

“Come on, Sin, if there is one person he will spare for disobeying him. It’ll be you,” Brock says, throwing an arm around her shoulder and leading her to their shared room. Two cots shoved together because it was easier that way for them to remain a team. Blankets piled on top and blood bags in the corner with a pullup bar over their own private bathroom.

So Brock takes advantage of rooming with Schmidt’s daughter, and he definitely gets more out of it than she does. All she gets is something that might literally eat her in the middle of the night and makes her colder no matter how many blankets are piled on top. Plus, that lovely lingering smell of blood in the air.

“I wonder what Doc wants to do with the American soldier” Sin sighs lying on her cot.

“Probably try and make a new Captain America,” Brock says.

“Could you imagine if the Nazi’s had Steven Rogers as the face of their made-up race” Sin sighs.

“I would rather not,” Brock shrugs. “He was so young, do you not recall? When we left them there, his face he can not be older than twenty,” Brock says, and she sighed, staring at the ceiling.

“And to think I’m like ten” Sin grins.

“Well if you’re a super-aged super-soldier, than I’m a vampire, and that would be absurd” Brock scoffs and flops onto his cot. She smirks before yawning and pulling the blankets up over her.

“Unbelievable, really,” she adds before closing her eyes. Brock smirks and does the same where would he be without her. She was basically his baby sister at this point. Not that he would ever try to protect her from anything unless she expressly needs his physical assistance.

He remembers his older brother. A cold man who obviously thought he was Brock’s father. He died in the war somewhere a nameless face amongst hundreds. Pointless and worthless his death was, which was why Brock vowed not to be so weak for the next battle. He would have never predicted what HYDRA was capable of.

* * *

**Early 2000s: New York City**

Brock grits his teeth as he joins SHIELD and reties himself to HYDRA. Apparently, Sin was very killable with a particular gas that disables her abilities to never age and rapidly hits her with it every physical injury she has ever received, also piling on top.

They confirmed this by using said gas on a ‘sister’ of Sin’s. There were a lot of babies aged like Sin to be weapons, and apparently, Zola made a gas just in case. As such, he agreed to rejoin the group.

This means Sin has cut all ties with him and told him to call her when he “stops being a fucking idiot,” her exact words. He knows he is one, but he cares about her crazy ass too much to let her father’s organization kill her.

Of course, as the years drag on and he becomes attached to members of his STRIKE team, it is more cannon fodder for HYDRA to use them to hold Brock accountable. Maybe he could have at one point protected Sin.

But now it was Sin, Barton, Mace, Romanoff, and Jack, Brock could not save them all. Oh, how they’ve gotten to Jack made him the same promises they made Brock when he was still a mortal man.

Promised him greatness, but Jack doesn’t know he already has it. The werewolf curse is not what HYDRA wants. Not easy to control, but to study him, use him, all the while controlling Brock. A win, win for HYDRA.

Of course, a werewolf is not all that impressive to HYDRA as superheroes are becoming a thing once more.

Brock hasn’t seemed someone hero worthy since Carol Danvers rocked HYDRA into gear, and they started hunting for them.

Of course now Tony Stark fancies himself one with his suits, Brock knows they have located the ship Steve Rogers went down on, and Clint is cleaning after the gods Schmidt waxed poetry about.

Brock stands looking out his apartment window over D.C. and wonders how long until they find the tesseract if they are looking for Rogers. How long until HYDRA decides the world needs Project Insight.

Brock can not afford to consider why he cares for Jack so much, not now, at least. Not with the way the world is currently turning.

  
  



	3. Chapter 3

**2010: Malibu, California**

Brock kneels over the body of the man who called himself Whiplash. SHIELD is on clean up duty, and he was told to go make sure the guy was human. He is for sure all human and a dead one at that.

Jack winces at the smell and looks at Brock, he is staring at the bloody chest of the corpse-like it is a meal. He pulls back and stands up, walking over to Jack. "Let's get an extraction team down here. This is where he died," Brock says, and Jack nods radioing one in.

They leave the garden and walk around the expo studying things before they let the team take them away.

"Natasha says Stark is secure," Jack says, and Brock nods. "Hammer has been brought in for questioning we'll receive a transcript in the morning," he adds, and Brock hums, turning towards the picture of the original stark expo at the world fair. "Could you imagine living then no evil robots" Jack smirks.

"I don't know, I think I could" Brock smirks and laughs a little, walking off and waving Jack after him. They reach the exit point where trucks full of stuff are being carted away. Brock is pretty positive. Stark blocked them out of all his systems, but Hammer is not that smart.

They can find out something of note Brock is sure of it. They hop on the next transport truck carting out all the security camera stuff they could find.

Jack rests beside Brock in the passenger seat of this van. It was one row, and his thigh was pressed against his. Jack is very aware of every inch of contact they have.

Jack runs hot now around 100 degrees always. Brock was freezing more than regular people. Last time Jack saw his temperature, he swears it said sixty degrees. Brock said he had just put it in his mouth and took it out too soon.

Jack knows better, Brock was beyond cold to the touch and incredibly suspicious of the medical teams always.

He focuses on Brock so often it is impossible for him not to notice how odd he is. How his cups are never see-through and always closed. How he guards them and wash them as soon as he finishes.

Barton joked he thought Brock brought wine to work one day, but Jack knows Brock doesn't drink.

They return to the base, and Brock heads for his office, and Jack goes to see Sitwell. Who informs him Steve Rogers has been found.

The world is in a frenzy over this news. HYDRA is restless, and Jack wonders out of his office and towards Brock's.

He knocks, and before he can speak, the door slides open. Brock lets go of the button to open the door, he does love opening the door that way and gestures to the chairs in front of his desk.

"You hear about Captain America?" Jack asks, smirking. "Honestly, people are so dumb needing heroes to believe in a better world or some shit. HYDRA is trying to build it, but" Jack begins and gets a glare, so deadly Jack remembers who he is talking to.

"Fuck off, Rollins. They don't have any interest in building a new world. They want to destroy it," Brock hisses, and Jack winches that was a real animalistic hiss deep from Brock's chest.

"Brock, Captain America is the picture of Aryan perfection and the white picket fence dream. How can the people still rally to him? Or a billionaire who doesn't care about anything but his own ego," Jack demands.

Brock recalls the brave soldier backing off from Brock to save his friend. Brock does not, for one second, believe as history tells them that Bucky Barnes and Steve Rogers were just really good buddies.

Rogers vowed to destroy HYDRA, and the fact that the number of deaths attributed to him increased tenfold after Barnes fell from the train is no coincidence.

"Jack, you sound insane, I'm not having this conversation with you again. Not now, I need to go deal with this Captain America situation with like a dozen different people. Including the bullshit, HYDRA has planned," Brock sighs standing up.

Jack catches him by the wrist, fingers resting against his pulse for a moment before Brock shifts his hand, so their fingertips are touching.

"Brock, I am on your side. You say HYDRA truly is not trustworthy, then I don't trust them," Jack says, eyes wide and honest. He couldn't figure out what Brock's expression is, his dark eyes filled with what looks like caring or at least approval.

Brock pulls his hand away, closing his eyes. He nods before leaving the room again.

Jack leaves the office sitting in the cafeteria. He thinks about how long their hands rested together and how Brock seems determined to save him from HYDRA. It drives Jack insane how Brock flirts and teases and leans in before pulling away.

Citing his responsibilities as Jack's boss as if Jack is the sole one feeling this way. He can not possibly be.

Brock's hand was so cold, and his fingers did not jump with a pulse. Jack really was focused on how close they were to holding hands, fingertips to fingertips. Yeah, Brock is weird, and he has a bizarre thought about what it might be.

\--

The fighting is done, and Jack slides his palm along the edge of the door where the corner is sharp, and they all know to avoid it.

He glances under his eyelashes at Brock, who has clenched his towel, so hard Jack swears he hears ripping. He wanders closer, and Brock breaths out. "Dammit," Jack hisses, trying to grab his attention.

Brock turns to him and unwinds the towel wrapping it around Jack. "You'll be healed soon enough," Brock smiles weakly, and Jack sees it in his eyes. The hunger he wants Jack's blood.

Brock leaves quickly, wondering what Jack was playing at. He cut himself on that door. Has he been obvious, did Jack smell what is in his cup. His blood smelt revolting, and that was the only reason Brock was able to stay away.

As much as he is attracted to Jack, animal blood is not a favorite of his, it's disgusting, and Jack smells of animal blood and poison. Not appealing, but all blood has an appeal of some sort to him.

* * *

**1987: Chicago**

Brock throws an arm around Sin's shoulders as they wander out of a club. He smells the man before he threatens them.

Sin giggles drunk as hell and pulls a knife. Brock laughs at the guy's demand for money, and before they know it, Sin is on the ground with a bullet wound in her stomach.

Brock rushes forward, and the man screams out as Brock's teeth rip his throat. Brock does not want to drink from this drug addict but simply tears his throat across his artery before rushing to Sin's side.

She is bleeding over his hands, and he has blood in his mouth. "Brock, hey no," she groans, but he's got his mouth on her stomach. She moans in pain as his teeth cut her wound further. She screams out when something leaves her body, and Brock sits up mouth bloody and there in between his front teeth, a bullet.

He looks horrified and lets it fall from his mouth. He scoops Sin up and rushes her to their apartment and treats her there. Her blood covers his hands still, and his vision is red as it can get as he slams against the fridge, trying to control himself.

Brock has no interest in draining her dry why can he not pull this together. He just has to get her cleaned up. Just get her free of the blood covering her, and then he can do this.

* * *

**2010: Washington, D.C.**

Jack sighs, watching his skin slowly mend itself, and he down a raw meat smoothie. Not disgusting, he craves them like it looks Brock craved his blood.

He goes to wash his blender when his window opens. He turns ready to attack when he sees red hair and almost relaxes. Natasha's hair is not that red, so Jack goes back on the offensive in the face of this intruder.

She has a gun trained on him, and her eyes are so pale almost white, and she gives him a smirk.

"Hey there, Jackie. I have some questions for you," she laughs, cocking her gun.

"I have one first, why shouldn't I kill you," Jack asks, reaching for a knife.

"Uh uh, stay still. Well, Brock would kill you, which would put a damper on your plans to seduce him," she shrugs, sliding his window all the way shut. "Speaking of which, why are you messing with your boss?" she asks.

"None of your business and you have twenty seconds to get out," Jack says, and she laughs firing at his blender, and it explodes. What in the fuck was powering that pistol? It actually looks old as hell too.

"Look pretty boy doesn't get jealous. I know your boss very well. Names Sin," she grins, and he raises an eyebrow. "Really not one mention of me? You spend your life with someone," she sighs, annoyed.

"Are you his sister?" Jack asks, confused. Brock had offhand mentioned being an older brother, but that was as much about his family as he had ever divulged.

"Yep, well close as you can get without blood," she grins coldly. "And I have a sneaking suspicion you have some suspicions of Brock," Sin adds, and she puts the gun down.

Jack relaxes slightly. If this was Brock's sister, then he couldn't attack her, but he has no way of checking that.

"You got some proof of that?" Jack demands to shake.

She scoffs and pulls out a phone. It is a picture of her and Brock leaning against a railing facing some ship. Probably a museum visit they even look like students. Combat boots, cargo pants, and t-shirts.

The picture looks old, but they seem to be the same age; something about it is familiar. "Anywhos suspicions of Brock, look, you should probably dig yourself because that guy is not telling you," she said, hoping to his couch.

"You trust me to snoop around," Jack asks, confused.

"Oh, I've tapped your phone and this place, which is wired up by the way. Your name is flagged for me as well. Trust me, Rollins, if you were no good, you'd be dead." she says, and that is a terrifying bit of information.

"Um ok, some people like to the whole hurt him, I'll hurt you thing, but stalking sure" Jack nods.

"Don't be witty, Jack. That's Brock's job. You're the silent observer mmkay. Look you hurting him involves you actually winning him over, and he's big on this whole power balance thing. So be yourself to him cause weirdly he likes this whole tortured creature of the night thing" she grins like she's made a joke only she is in on.

"Can you just go, I'm not going to answer your questions. My relationship with Brock is frankly none of your business, and I assume you don't want me mentioning this meeting because you two clearly don't talk to get rid of your shit and leave me alone," he demands, and her grin widens.

"I approve, I hate a bootlicker. Oh, and drop out of HYDRA. It's going to get you dead," she says and walks back towards the window. "Good luck with trying to make Brock change his mind, night" she laughs at him and leaves.

What a disturbing woman, but at least someone is in Brock's life watching over him. Brock and her look nothing alike, but she did say without blood. Maybe one or the other was adopted. He wonders if he should tell Brock about this encounter anyways.

No, he never mentions Sin; he has no pictures of family in his office. He really has seen that picture somewhere.

Or maybe it was just the background of a postcard or something. Jack's gonna have to look into it. Perhaps Brock doesn't want anything to do with his sister.

Jack could understand that. His own family saw him as a monster not for a werewolf curse because that came later but for simply being attracted to men.

It was ridiculous, so much for love and judge not. He goes to grab a broom, he has an exploded blender to clean up.


	4. Chapter 4

**2011: New York City**

Jack flips through everything on Steve Rogers and HYDRA inside the folder that he was to pass around. Inside the folder is a photo with a striking familiarity. Sitwell had shown him pictures of the war when he was recruited.

It is of the Red Skull and that red-headed woman. Sin the sister to Brock, as she claimed.

He pulls the photo from the folder. It is cropped, but Sin's arm is raised out of the frame where it would be resting around Brock's shoulders.

"No way, no way. She would be so old," Jack says and pulls out the Red Skull file.

Known kin, Sinthea Schmidt, his daughter. Born in 1935 but no in that photo, she could have been ten at the most.

He flips through the files for anything on Brock any pictures, but they would have removed them. Maybe it wasn't the same, but he sees the name of the ship in the background.

It's the Valkyrie, the plane Captain America crashed in the arctic.

That can't be; it just doesn't make any sense. Even if Jack has the batshit crazy thought that Brock is probably a vampire, that's just too much. There was no way he was that old.

He takes the picture out and passes the folder to the next person. Mace had this at one point, but he clearly had never met Brock's sister.

Jack walks out of the briefing room, eyes wide, and he sees Sitwell. He rushes over to him and calms himself schooling his features into the picture of calmness.

"Brock has ordered a stand-down on Steve Rogers. He doesn't want any HYDRA involved says it is too dangerous with how they are watching him now," Jack tries. Either he was going to look crazy or be correct.

"I'll talk to him about that," Sitwell growls, and Jack raises an eyebrow. "Or I'll uh advise a different option. Maybe he could join your team. Of course, I'll have to get this cleared with him" he sighs and walks away seemingly more frazzled than surprised Jack knew Brock was higher ranking.

He trails him, sticking to the shadows and watches Brock crowd, Sitwell, against the wall his face obstructed.

"You ever question my orders again I'll have your head" Brock growls dark and deep animalistic.

The wolf in Jack is terrified of that voice, and Sitwell looks like he might die of fright.

Brock shoves Sitwell down the hallway and snaps in Jack's direction, waving him forward. Of course, he saw him. Jack gulps and walks ahead, wondering how much trouble he was about to be in.

Brock steps into his personal space. Shorter than him maybe, but his frightening gaze makes Jack feel like a kid.

"Why do you not want us messing with Captain America?" Brock asks him eyes dark.

"Your sister told me to look out for you," Jack says, avoiding the question to which he had no answer. It was literally the first thing that popped into his head. Hope Brock will be too shocked to ask him further. And Brock does look shocked, and then he seems angry when Jack hands him the photo of Sin with the Red Skull.

"Fucking Sin," he sighs and leads Jack out of the building.

Jack is pretty sure this is where he gets shot in the head, but he's staring at Brock who's eyes go red and his fangs drag against his bottom lip.

Jack gasps, he guessed, of course, but Brock, he was really a vampire. He reaches out and then freezes.

Brock steps forward, so the tips of Jack's fingers brush his teeth. "Sharper than your fangs," Brock says, and they drag up Jack's fingers, slicing them open, and his blood drips into Brock's mouth.

"You can control it? Your bloodlust," Jack asks. He knows Brock must have it. He's seen him stare at dead bodies like he wants to drain them.

"You smell like a dog," Brock says, and Jack laughs startled by that and a little offended. "I mean animals smell terrible, and you smell like a sick dog" Brock shrugs and pulls back face returning to normal in an instant.

"All that stuff about control," Jack begins.

"Something I've been practicing since 1935," Brock smiles. "I'll never be as bad as I was in the beginning, but depending on how hungry I am, I can start to lose it. But I don't like drinking from people. The media makes it look like its something sexual or intimate. But as far as I've been told by Sin, it just hurts like a bitch" Brock shrugs and sighs, looking away from Jack.

"Why would you hide this from the team?" Jack demands suddenly annoyed for his teammates. Their boss was lying to their faces.

"Bring more attention to myself? Do you know how hard it is to forge an identity that SHIELD can't see anything wrong with? Do you think my name is Brock Rumlow from New York, New York? With no listed siblings, by the way, because Sinthea Schmidt was destiny's child for HYDRA, their next pariah. You can guess how annoyed they were with us when we dropped off the map in 1946" Brock sighs hands gripping his hair. 

"You can't tell anyone Rollins," Brock says, and that's an order.

"Ok," Jack shrugs. "I mean not like I have explicitly told the team what I am, but it's there in my file. I disappear on the full moon. Clint did make a lot of dog puns now that I think about," Jack rambles which makes Brock sigh in relief.

"Why did you even care to find out what I was? Could you not have left well enough alone, Jack" Brock groans like he's been wounded, and Jack steps forward, and before he's pressed against a lamppost. "I care about you, Jack, you know this, but this is just one more reason we can't do this," Brock sighs head dropping to Jack's chest. Listening to his heart, thud up close.

"I don't see why this counts towards anything. You said you don't want my blood. You know I'm not loyal to HYDRA anymore, and if it's about the whole boss thing, I'll transfer to another team," Jack says, and cold fingers curl around his biceps.

"NO," Brock growls eyes flashing red, he is unrestrained now. "You don't get to move to another team. No one else would even be able to stop you if you got out of control. You don't get it, Jack. They will target you specifically if they know what you are to me," Brock says, squeezing tighter.

Jack rolls his eyes sky-high before lowering his gaze to meet Brock's he was not backing down, not about this. "And that is what exactly hmm? Your second-hand cause that's Mace, and I don't see you watching out for him. Your friend? Because you certainly don't think Clint and Natasha need to leave you alone to stay safe? Your brother? Because you have never mentioned Sin by name," Jack demands, and he gets a glare for his efforts.

"Mace is my second hand because he is loyal, unbiased, and I know if I needed it done, he'd call me out on my bullshit, HYDRA does threaten the whole team. Me being your team leader protects you guys. Clint and Natasha are literally two of the best spies in the world; they don't need my protection. You are certainly not a brother to me, and Sin was born a weapon for HYDRA; she knows how to handle them. And me not interacting with her? Gives them reason to believe them threatening her is not that big of a deal," Brock lists, letting Jack go and stepping back.

Jack grabs his arm and yanks, but Brock does not budge. "You totally let me win," Jack realizes, and Brock's lips twitch slightly in an attempt of a grin, but he looks miserable still. "But you didn't answer me question Brock, what am I to you?" Jack demands, and the alarms start going off in the building. "Hey, answer me," Jack shouts as Brock turns towards the building.

"Not now, Jack, we will talk later. I promise," Brock says, and he starts sprinting towards the building. Jack follows gritting his teeth, Brock is a fucking bastard.

They run onto the streets right to Times Square and see Steve Rogers up and very much alive staring at the billboards a horrified look on his face as he's told they won the war.

He really looks the exact same, but Brock guesses so do Sin and himself. Brock for once welcomes the HYDRA meetings that Jack is not privy to. He needs to collect his own thoughts.

In truth, he cares greatly for Jack, but he is terrified of so much. HYDRA hurting him, accidentally hurting or doing worse Jack himself, watching Jack grow old without him, or having Jack leave him once he realizes how awful Brock is to live with. Sin often disappeared for years at a time because she hated the way he would live.

On and off with his blood lust being in and out of control. He couldn't lose Jack, but Brock gets the feeling if Jack isn't given an answer he is going to anyways.

"Put him on my team, we'll start doing more training. I'll get him one on one" Brock says. It was best if he could talk to Steve in person to see if he even remembers his face before trying to conceive him that he has changed.

Steve would be instrumental to the fall of HYDRA, well again. Brock meets him alone, and the Captain looks murderous when he sets his eyes on Brock.

Brock raises his hands and figures he should definitely wait on breaking the whole Winter Soldier news. The number of people briefed on that is lower than the ones informed about who Brock really is.

"I am not the enemy here, Captain. I'm not with them, not really," Brock says.

"How are you alive?" Steve demands, and Brock wagers bullshitting something but just flashes his fangs.

"Same way you are, science. Look, I was like you. I wanted to protect my country. It just took me a fear to realize how fucked my country was. By then, where was I going to go? Do? America would have never accepted me not as that guy," Brock says, and Steve has the same bloodlust he does, but oh, he doesn't need it to live.

"You killed my- god Bucky" Steve gasps out, eyes watering.

"I will help you out here. With HYDRA, who had totally infiltrated this place by the time I joined. Captain, I am sorry about what happened to you and your Bucky," Brock says, trying to imagine if Jack died. The thought pains him, but he can't even start to gather how much pain Rogers must be in right now.

"You and that woman let us go. You could have shot the Red Skull's greatest threat, but you ran," Steve says.

"Sinthea Schmidt, that's her name. The Red Skull's biological daughter. But I'm the only family she has left. Another product of science, just like you and me she doesn't age. We let you go because we had no interest in killing two young lovers. That is why you came, was it not? To Austria, it was to get your lover," Brock asks, and Steve nods.

"That's why I started killing as well. You took him," Steve hisses, and yeah Brock is not bringing up Bucky, not right now. He was barely human, let alone whoever he was to Steve.

Brock holds out a hand, and Steve glances at it. "Help me take down HYDRA, and I will do whatever it is you need," Brock says, and Steve shakes his hand firmly.

"Well, first off, I need a history crash course. I crashed the plane and then?" Steve asks, and Brock settles in a chair, ready to start explaining.

* * *

**2012: New York City**

Jack glares at Steve as he boxes with Brock. They spent a lot of time together, buddy, buddy. Brock mentioned they met each other once, which pisses Jack off to no end.

He hates how Brock is barely the leader anymore. Deferring to Rogers and consulting only him. Mace is hardly spoken to, and Brock seems fully invested in whatever he and Rogers were up to.

Steve knocks Brock down, and Jack knows Brock isn't holding back the way the ring shakes when they land from kicks and the sound of the cracks at good punches. Steve Rogers was just that good.

Brock never gave Jack the respect when they spar. Which they haven't done in about three months. Oh yeah, what he was to Brock,' someone I care about Jack, leave it.' That is such bullshit, Jack can't stand it how Brock has started to dismiss him.

If he heard the phrase, not now, one more time, he was going to snap. Fury walks in straight to Brock, and Steve neither leaves as he briefs them on something.

Brock smirks at Steve before leaving the ring. Steve follows, and they follow Fury out of the room.

\--

Jack meets the team at the docks before boarding the helicarrier, and they head out for open water.

A plane lands, and Steve gets off with Brock. Natasha hugs Brock before walking with Steve. Brock grins at Jack, who turns away and heads inside.

Brock freezes, watching Jack turn from him. So he had been busy these past few weeks or well months he guesses but Jack could be silent too.

He heads inside and goes to find Jack when Natasha, somehow beating him to this hallway, stops him. "I have to get to a meeting, but Brock, I Remember that Thor thing Clint had to deal with last year?" Natasha asks him.

"Yes, it was so crazy if he didn't have pictures and witness I wouldn't believe him" Brock nods, trying to listen for Jack, too many people.

"Well, Thor has a younger brother, Loki, just like the stories suggest. Loki has compromised Clint," Natasha says, and Brock freezes, his for Clint fear consuming him.

"So we're getting him back. That's what this is about. Stop Loki, get Clint?" Brock demands.

"Well and get the tesseract is what SHIELD is doing, but I'm getting Clint back," she vows, but he sees the worry in the way she holds herself. He didn't notice her hair cut, huh, and dye.

"Then get to that meeting so you can get that idiot back here" Brock smirks, and she nods, walking off. Brock finds out which room Jack is in by walking up and down the halls looking for his scent.

Jack looks up to see Brock. "Took your time finding me," Jack sneers.

"Sorry I know being the center of my attention is hard for you" Brock snaps and then sighs, seeing Jack wince. "I didn't mean. Jack, Rogers, and I are working on something important, and I will tell you," Brock promises.

"But not now, right? Cause its never the right time for you," Jack scoffs, turning away.

"I'm sorry Jack, as soon as we are ready, I will tell you what we're doing" Brock promises before he leaves.

Jack clenched his jaw, his eyes stinging with tears, his stomach clenched with anxiety and pain. Brock doesn't trust him, he doesn't think he can keep himself safe. To Brock, he needs protecting and coddling. Always stops him before he can officially confess anything, it pisses him off to no end. Jack hates it, but Brock never listens.

\--

Loki is brought in, and he is terrifying. Still, Brock knows the signs of someone acting under fear and corrosion instead of loyalty.

Thor seems even more frightening than his brother, and they argue about what to be done about it. Brock meets Dr. Banner, who is so jittery Brock is worried he'll fall apart.

Stark is taunting them all, and the ship is rocked by explosives. Brock runs to the main room only for a grenade to go off.

They hear the roars of the hulk and then a howl. Brock gasps, Jack, but it was the middle of the day. He finds a massive wolf growling in front of Natasha, who looked shaken as hell from

something.

Hulk and Thor are fighting behind them. Normal everyday stuff. Brock holds his hands up, trying to calm Jack.

Natasha looks like she is going to pass out when Fury asks if anyone can stop Barton. She looks at Brock nods and walks off to get her idiot.

Jack tugs on Brock's fingers, dragging him away from where the Hulk and Thor fight. Brock brings him to his own room. He feels terrible about leaving them, but Jack needs him now.

He has literally zero idea what to do. He had no idea Jack could turn into a wolf when not a full moon, so he has no idea how to get him back to normal.

"Nod your head if you can understand me," Brock asks of him. On the full moons, Jack could not and was to be manhandled usually, but he was docile staring up at Brock. He moves his massive head up and down before hopping up on the bed. He lies his head on Brock's lap closing his eyes. Brock starts petting him, his hands disappearing under the soft and thick fur.

"Least you're calm now," Brock smirks, receiving a nip on his fingers for that joke. He lays back onto Jack's stomach, which gets a massive wolf head on his chest. Golden eyes meeting his Brock breathes out his heart clenching. There was something raw in Jack's eyes right now that was killing him.

Jack can obviously take care of himself why does he keep pushing him away. Brock lets his smile be comfortable and free, hoping Jack can see what he feels. Jack licks his fingers and the warm breath on him and the gentle rise of Jack's warm, soft wolf body lulls him to sleep.

Brock wakes up head on Jack's legs, his very human head on his stomach. He’s fully dressed, maybe because he did it willingly his clothes didn’t tear apart. Brock sits up gently and leaves to let him sleep. They would talk later.

Brock makes his way to the center of the helicarrier where learns about Coulson’s death. He walks over to Natasha and sits down beside her. 

"Where are we heading?" Brock asks Natasha, who is wrapped around Clint in a hug. 

"New York, New York," Clint answers for her and kisses her cheek. PDA, they are really shaken up.

"Loki is going there, Stark is sure of it. So we are too" Natasha sighs and rests her head against Clint's.

Brock nods and walks off to prepare the STRIKE team. They were going to be ready to face whatever came at them.

\--

Jack shakes as the aliens drop dead and leans against a wall. He can't see Brock, and the team is scattered.

He wants to scream, cry, sleep, do anything but sit and smell the now dead aliens.

His comms crackle to life, and Brock is ordering them to evacuate the subways.

Jack relaxes an order; he can follow an order. He walks and sees members of his team down in the tunnels moving as robotic as he must be ordering civilians to move it.

They are crying, and Jack wishes he could. He flinches when someone grabs his shoulder, but it's an older woman standing on one leg, and she gave him a wry smile.

"Help an old lady out would ya," she says, her eyes watery and she's shaking. He nods and scoops her up.

"My wife could never," she sighs out, and Jack wants to smile, but he just nods and hands her off to medics.

"Jack," Mace calls his hair covered in blood and dust. A child is at his feet, and who knows if they have anyone.

He turns and walks over to him. "What's up, Jeff?" Jack asks, and Mace steadying him with a hand on his elbow.

"We lost Davis," Mace tells him, eyes haunted.

"How?" Jack asks, looking out over the rubble that is the city. The better question is, how did they only lose him.

"He was on the bridge to make sure none of them were getting off that way. They just overwhelmed him, but none of them broke through. He took them down with him," she sighs, and Jack nods.

Their comms crackle again, and they turn to see the cops taking over the subway.

"Get to Stark tower asap," Brock says, and then his voice is gone. They nod and start walking all meeting at the base and get in the elevator.

They see Brock talking to Stark, and he does not look happy.

They get in the elevator, and Brock hands the scepter off to Alexander Pierce. Brock rolls his eyes, watching Tony Stark argue about the spear and grabs Jack by the arm and into the stairwell.

Jack is silent as they walk, wondering when Brock was going to start the pat-down for injuries or demand something else of him. Jack gasps as he's dragged forward by his shirt and into a kiss.

He melts into it, kissing back and cupping the back of Brock's head when Brock's radio goes off. Brock sighs into his mouth before pulling away and answering Natasha.

They return to the top floor, and Brock walks over to Clint and Natasha.

"I suppose you guys are staying with the Avengers," Brock says, and Natasha nods nudging Clint.

"You'll be fine, Brock" Clint smirks.

"Course I will," Brock says, and they hug him.

"Take care of Rollins yeah," Clint says, and Brock smiles.

"I got the whole team, Clint," Brock says and turns back to them. "We need a replacement by the way," Brock says, and they start to go.

"You were Natasha's boss?" Tony asks him eyebrows raised.

"I follow orders from any person I respect. Like Fury, Rumlow, and Rogers," Natasha smirks, and Rumlow smiles before patting Jack on the shoulder, and they move out.

Jack smiles when Brock's fingers lace with his. Maybe they could actually get somewhere today if Brock was in a talking mood. Jack isn't sure he is, though, at this point.

Pierce intercepts them and waves at Brock. Brock raises Jack's hand to his mouth and kisses the back of it, making eye contact with Pierce the whole time and letting them turn red before smiling and Jack and walking towards Pierce.

Pierce rolls his eyes, and Brock stands looking at the case being secured. "Good news, Rogers is heading up the Avengers. Mace will take STRIKE" Pierce begins and sees Brock startle. "You'll be traveling with the staff. Mental health leave this fight really messed you up" Pierce orders and hears Brock start to growl. "Unless you have something more important than utilizing the staff for HYDRA," Pierce sneers.

Brock sighs and climbs into the truck. He watches the city fade and grumbles as he has to take a flight to Sokovia. Large HYDRA base here always had been.

He knows the way already and hates that the route is in his mind. He hands over the staff, and they are all German. They order him to work with some twins who only speak Sokovian and Romanian. He can teach them English.

Brock nods; the German feels weird on his tongue before he walks to the cells where the two are being held.

He opens a door, and a blast of red sends him flying across the hall before he crashes into the wall. This was going to be a disaster.


	5. Chapter 5

**2012: New York City**

Jack cracks his back after he helps lift concrete off bodies and winces at the smell of blood. He turns, looking out at the skyline heat from fires distorting his view; this was horrible.

Brock disappeared with Pierce, so Mace took over, ordering them all to help with clean up. Mace gives them two hours before he orders them to a quinjet that have arrived and back to Washington.

Jack tries radioing Brock, but he gets no response. He relaxes, Brock will meet them there. After kissing him like that and challenging Pierce, he was coming back.

But Brock does not meet them there. They hear nothing from him for over a week. Jack confronts Sitwell in his office.

"Rollins show some respect," Sitwell tries, but he is lifted up by his shirt.

"Where is Brock?" Jack spits out growling, and he knows his eyes are yellow.

"A-a mental health leave. That's all Pierce told me," Sitwell gasps out, terrified. Jack sneers at the coward of a man and storms away.

He goes to the sparring grounds to see Steve Rogers, who should be in New York City tossing a weight in the air and catching it.

Rogers looks Jack right in the eyes and stands. "Where is Rumlow?" he asks, so nonchalant Jack would think he was simply just curious. Not some co-conspirator in whatever Brock was probably up to.

"Mental Health leave," Jack reports, and the Captain narrows his eyes, clearly checking Jack for lies.

"Alright," Rogers nods and clicks his tongue leaving the room. Jack knows he has no shot of trailing the Captain.

Who, as they learned every day was more than America's golden boy. He was an Irish catholic kid of Irish immigrants who grew up a scrawny punk in Brooklyn in the 1920s. Not really the all American look the government strives for.

He was a shady fucker just like Brock, never says what he is thinking. Jack growls and leaves the room. He doesn't need to train, he needs to run.

He changes into track pants, a sweatshirt, and some sneakers. He starts out into the woods.

Jack feels more at ease as soon as he is enveloped in the trees. His body is flying across the terrain faster than he knew he could run.

He feels his vision go hazy, and then he's certainly much lower down running. He is hit with a flux of scents ah excellent he just turned into a wolf.

He chalked the helicarrier incident up to shock a protective instinct. What the hell was this, could he do it on command. Well, he can change the way his face looks by focusing.

Jack thinks about changing back but shakes his head and runs further into the woods free for the first time since that first night, when this pain went away.

* * *

**2007: Northern California**

Jack groans as he gets out of his car on the side of the road. His arm, where the dog bit him a week ago, is throbbing so bad he could barely see the bandage. Jack rips it off to see it bloody still healing until the moonlight shines down on it.

He screams in pain as it does so, and he stumbles backward over a guardrail on the road. Jack lands in a pile of leaves crying out in pain as all he can think about is his arm feeling like it is on fire.

"Oh god, make it stop," he cries out, feeling his cheeks wet as he curls around his arm. His bones start to ache and sobs out, wondering if he is dying. The pain starts to fade, and he doesn't feel connected to his body, he's dying. He has to be dying, oh god.

And then it all goes black until he wakes up naked beside a dead body while he is covered in blood. 

"It wasn't a dream" he whispers to himself horrified at the blood he is sitting in, soaked in. 

And then a man who says he can help and hands over clothes. Jack follows after him willing to do just about anything to figure out what just happened to him. 

Jack is silent in the car with this man, Brock Rumlow. He sees flashes of the forest, hears a scream, tastes the man on his tongue. He wants to cry, but he is no more pain.

He supposes this werewolf thing makes sense based on what he has just felt but holy shit how could he be a werewolf.

He was literally just a volunteer park ranger who was half-assed attempting to get a bachelor's degree in environmental science. And looking out for his elderly parents even though the nursing home really has it handled.

He rubs his forearm where the wound is gone like it was never there at all. Jack remembers the searing pain, how it would not close, how it burned under the moonlight.

* * *

**2013: Sokovia**

Brock has been telling the twins that Tony Stark was betrayed. Someone stole his weapons and sold them, that he stopped making weapons. That if he had known of Sokovia, he would have helped them.

He assures them HYDRA has no interest in their wellbeing, only what they can do for the organization.

Wanda, of course, read his mind, lived his life, and felt everything he ever did. The witch literally knows him better than Brock knows himself at this point.

She believes him now, and one word from her and Pietro agrees with her. He is truly something else how his body can possibly sustain speeds that fast is beyond him.

He thinks of Jack, and as per usual, a wave of guilt and regret crushes him, and he leans against a wall.

He wasted so much time on some mission to protect Jack when it was always him hurting him, not HYDRA. Dragging him along, not letting him talk about his feelings, abusing his position over Jack to keep him close even though he knew it would hurt him. He didn't mean to, didn't want to hurt him; it was the very last thing he ever wanted was Jack hurting.

Wanda sits beside him, and her red hands taking his reminds him of Sin except instead of slapping him upside the head and telling him to pull it together she takes his guilt.

"You will see him soon enough. They will not keep you here long; that is a promise," Wanda says.

"If you came with me, I would keep you both safe. Not that you could not manage it all on your own" Brock smiles, but it doesn't reach his eyes. He is grieving for one he has not lost.

"I think you are right. Pietro and I can care for ourselves but we will do it here. In our home. We will guard the staff and warn you of anything to come," Wanda says, and Brock looks up shocked.

"I have not been dismissed Wanda, I am going nowhere," Brock says, but she is already standing. She flicks her hands out and stumbles as her mind brushes Pietro's, who quickly appears behind her, so his mind does not drag her under a tidal wave of speed.

"Brock is going to America, you will not summon here again. We are trained" Wanda whispers, and their eyes glow red.

Brock is sure grateful she could see he was telling the truth and was a truly good woman. Pietro grabs him, and Brock falls over in an airport and laughs awkwardly, brushing his legs off. Damn kid.

Brock gets a ticket to Chicago and breathes out he is so close to Jack.

\--

Jack hears Mace laugh and hug someone outside the door of the briefing on defending against Chitauri in the event of an invasion independent of Loki. Brock strolls into the meeting like he was simply a few minutes late. Not gone on 'leave' for nearly eight months.

He doesn't give any reaction to Brock sitting beside him, and Mace just walks to the front and starts the briefing.

Brock is close to him, but Jack keeps his eyes on the screen. Eight months of no contact and Rogers seemed perfectly at ease whenever Brock was brought up.

So they were obviously in contact, and Brock, of course, looks to be in perfect health. How could he not be the immortal who probably didn't view eight months as that long of a time?

Where for eight months Jack dreamt of Brock's kiss, his hands laced with his. Jack swears he still feels the coolness on the back of his hand that Brock's kiss left behind. Same as he can feel his arm burn on a full moon.

Which he has full coherency of now; he can turn at will. He spends most of his time in the forests instead of training with Brock. He was once upon a time a park ranger, not a special operative for a secret branch of the government, which was infiltrated by a nazi group he was pretending to be a part of.

Jack almost laughs at the absurdity of his life. He is a werewolf pining over a vampire in the middle of a briefing about how to fight off a potential second alien invasion with the subtraction of a Norse god.

The briefing ends, and Brock stays to speak with Mace most likely about resuming his post.

Jack doesn't expect to not make it to the end of the hallway before a brush of wind, and Brock is next to him. They are literally in a hallway of people is he looking to get caught.

Jack gives Brock an unimpressed look, and Brock suddenly looks in love. A soft smile, his eyes melted with kindness. He looks like a man who has had his first breath of air after almost drowning.

"Jack," Brock breathes out like it's incredible to simply say it to him, and Jack raises an eyebrow.

"Welcome back boss," he says, and maybe that was cruel, but so was eight months of noncontact.

"Jack, you know I did not leave of my own will," Brock says, and Jack steps closer.

"I know, first of all, you are one of the highest-ranking members of our little group. I know that no one can make you do anything" Jack spits out, and his eyes are turning yellow, he knows it before his vision is tinted.

"I really did not this time. First, I had to know where they were taking Loki's scepter, and then there were these twins they needed training," Brock tries explaining.

"Ah yes, two random kids," Jack nods rolling his eyes. The scepter he understands, but Brock could have come home.

"They aren't random. They're science projects, activated mutant genes. A speedster and a manipulator of reality. Look, I will explain it all later, but right now, I have to call Steve Rogers," Brock says, and that was the wrong thing to say as he gets a broken nose for that one.

"Ah, of course, you would call Steve about all this" Jack sneers and storms off.

Brock snaps his nose in place and wipes his own blood away, what in the hell did Jack mean by that. Wanda said in his memories it was apparent that Jack loves him, and now Brock has somehow cause Jack more pain.

He really should just leave him alone until Jack wants to talk, Brock will back off. Stay to himself play team leader. Jack has never had a problem confronting Brock before, so when he wants to, he can bring up what they shared eight months ago, and they can work through that later.

He really does need to call Steve, if they're going to liberate the Maximoff's without them having to look over their shoulder their entire lives they to do it this way. Not like the way Brock left with Sin.

* * *

**1946: Paris, France**

Brock lounges on a balcony as Sin pours them wine. HYDRA had imploded, and as soon as the plane took off, they did too.

They had come straight here, both knowing French and having a reasonably good accent and passing as English as well. Neither fit that made up the Aryan stereotype, so they had no way of knowing who they were.

The landlord who at night hunts Nazi's would never know that his best-paying apartment with the Miller siblings is two head experiments of the Nazi's weapon department.

They are being tracked; they know they are traitors and will be branded as such right now. But once the world turns from Germany, because Brock knows the Soviets and Americans are about to have a pissing contest, then HYDRA will look to them for guidance.

To which they will have to kill many men to survive an attempt to remain unknown. But for now, they worry about which wines to drink and watch the sunset over the city.

This is truly the height of luxury compared to huddling on two cots under scratchy blankets in a mountain base filled with insane people.

The Doctor wants them back, but they will never let him touch them again, set eyes on his projects. He was determined to advance science, and Schmidt was determined to destroy the world.

What a pair of lunatics. Sin gives Brock a glass and starts chugging from the bottle. He smirks at her and downs his wine glass, which is filled with blood.

She knows him so well, he grins at her, and she smiles back. They raise their glasses in a silent toast to their own wellbeing before turning back to watch the Eiffel Tower light up.


	6. Chapter 6

**2013: Washington, D.C.**

Brock has warned Steve of where the staff is. Steve says to keep him updated, to see what they will do with the power. To have the twins monitor it.

Brock is given Steve and Natasha for a mission on a ship. And she has her orders, or she would not be needed.

Jack follows him, still giving him the silent treatment except for, yes, boss, to confirm things with him.

They get back to the ship, and Steve is angry at Natasha, and she could care less. They are both covered in dust and have resorted to arguing in Russian.

“I didn’t know you spoke Russian Cap” Brock interjects, and Steve’s scowl softens slightly.

“Oh, you know Russian, Gaelic, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Japanese, and a little Greek. Plus Latin and um English obviously. Anything that would help me talk to people during the war.” Steve shrugs, blushing a little. He leans against the wall when they get higher into the sky. 

“So you understood the pirates,” Brock wonders.

“Yeah, and I bet you did too. Seemed to know exactly what they were doing,” Steve smirks back.

“Oh, I’ve been to Paris before. Gotta say German, English, French, and Sokovian is as far as I ever got,” Brock smirks. Steve nods, laughing a little, thinking about how long ago they both learned said languages.

Brock hears a muffled growl and glances at Jack, who is sitting in the co-pilot seat. Natasha has wandered from Steve’s side, annoyed with him clearly.

Steve gives Brock a look and back to Jack. Brock launches in an explanation in sign language about what is going on between him and Jack, knowing that Jack can not understand sign language. Unless he has time to process each hand movement.

Steve’s frown is extremely judgemental, and boy Brock remembers he needs to tell Steve about this whole Winter Soldier thing. Which in all fairness, no one had seen the winter soldier since the 70s when he was sold to the soviets after Zola died.

They get off the plane, and Steve catches Brock by the elbow leading him away. “Just shut up a sec,” Steve whispers, and Brock raises an eyebrow.

He turns his head to see Jack trying to seem like he wasn’t staring at them. Steve yanked him around the corner of the plane and steps so close their knees bump. “What the hell are you,” Brock says and Steve shushes him leaning in to speak in his ear.

“Jack is jealous of me. He thinks you’re favoring me over him because you haven’t let him back in since you returned from Sokovia dumbass,” Steve hisses, and Brock looks at him, shocked.

“Honestly, for someone as old as you, you can’t notice someone being jealous?” Steve scoffs.

“Uh speaking of that kind of. Bucky’s alive,” Brock blurts out, and then his vision is spinning yep his head hit the side of the plane.

“What the - how- you- ugh,” Steve screams, and his eyes are filled with pain. Brock steps forward hands up.

“As far as I know, anyways. HYDRA kind of sold him to the Soviets in the 1970s after Zola died. I literally know nothing about him other than I dragged him off that mountain and to the base,”

Brock says, and Steve grabs him by the throat, lifting him into the air.

Brock groans at the feeling of his bones grinding together and try to breathe, not that he needs to. But if Brock is gonna speak, he needs it.

“So you knew the entire time that the love of my life is out there being tortured, used as a weapon, and you said nothing,” Steve snarls.

Brock grabs his wrist but doesn’t pull, he needs to hear this. “You were just back, and then Loki invaded, and I went to Sokovia. Right now seems like the best time to tell you. We can look for him. With HYDRA going to collapse with our help, then we can look for him,” Brock chokes out.

“You’ll help me?” Steve asks, furrowing his brow.

“I will. I told you, I’m not a Nazi, never really was. I was an experiment with a passion for his country,” Brock reminds him.

“My passion was always and has always been for people,” Steve says, walking away from him.

Brock sighs, Steve needed to know even if it was easier for him to not. Brock enters his office and pokes at the fading red marks on his neck, which of course, Jack sees and starts to turn.

“Hey, no wait,” Brock says, spinning around as Jack pauses in the doorway. “This isn’t what looks like” Brock continues.

“You can Rogers didn’t just confer behind the plane?” Jack scoffs.

“Well we did but-”

“Save it,” Jack says and straightens up. “Sorry for not knocking boss, none of my business,” Jack sneers, and Brock walks forward, grabbing his arm.

“It was about James Barnes, the love of Steve’s life. Who happens to be a soviet weapon. Look that is not the important part here, Jack. I care about you, but you changed your mind, or you didn’t. I need you to know nothing of any nature beyond the platonic bonding of two people who grew up at the same time,” Brock says, and Jack’s eyes drift to his neck. “Oh yeah, he picked me up by the neck,” Brock laughs slightly, and Jack narrows his eyes.

“Eight months no contact,” Jack hisses.

“I didn’t talk to Steve either. No one actually except for who was at the base. I didn’t even leave until Wanda and Pietro helped me,” Brock defends himself. “Look, I’m sorry for hurting you, Jack. I don’t want you to be in pain and certainly not over me. Please tell me what you feel,” Brock says, and Jack’s smile is almost cruel.

“Not now, I have to meet with Sitwell. We’ll talk after,” Jack states, pulling his arm from Brock’s grasp and walking away.

* * *

**2013: Washington, D.C.**

It was New Year’s Eve and weeks since Jack said they’d talk, they haven’t.

The party inside is fun, and Jack actually walks over to him and waves him outside. Back to the lamppost where Brock had revealed himself to Jack. Brock glances over at Jack only to see a giant wolf in his place. Brock glances up at the moon is not full, the full moon was on the 17th.

Which means Jack did this all on his own. Brock laughs, impressed, and follows after Jack into a clearing where the moon peers through the trees. Jack turns back and sits on the ground.

Brock follows, not sure what was doing, but he doesn’t want to ruin Jack’s peaceful smile by talking.

After a few moments of Jack looking up at the moon and Brock gazing at him, Jack breaths deep. “Do you love me?” Jack asks. Simple and to the point, he was sick of being told he was cared about.

“Yes,” Brock responds, eyes wide and honest. Jack honestly was not expecting a response that quickly or devoid of Brock’s utterly ridiculous ways of dodging questions, one might confuse him for a politician.

Jack toys with the leaves and walks closer to him on his knees. “Then tell me what is going on. I thought we got passed this whole Jack is a damsel in distress nonsense. I am literally a werewolf, tell me what you have shared with Rogers” Jack demands of him, and Brock leans in as well.

“I only seek to protect you because of how I care for you. I have always cared for you. Ever since I started training you,” Brock whispers to him. “I have been telling Steve who is in HYDRA. How we operate, sharing the meeting recordings with him. Telling him of bases. Once they launch project Insight. Steve and I are going to take them down expose them cut them down at the root as they all rise up. It’s the only way to save SHIELD is if the world believes it was a few bad apples who got ahold of some old HYDRA files and became obsessed,” Brock explains to him, and

Jack nods wide-eyed. They really were going to take down HYDRA.

“Let me help you. I joined this group because of you. So let me do this for you,” Jack says and leans forward to rest their foreheads together.

“Ok, I’ll let you help, but it’s just going to be a lot of killing,” Brock warns him.

“For you? For the good of SHIELD and America? I think I can handle killing some Nazi’s” Jack shrugs.

“Did you really not know they were Nazi’s when you joined?” Brock wonders.

“I mean, I never really connected the two. Right, Captain America fought the Nazi’s. Sitwell told me they could use me to build a better world. That people with powers were at the face of it. Should have known it was off, but they told me you were apart of it and Brock I just” Jack sighs.

“You wanted to stay with me. I get it, darling. Every day in Sokovia, I would have these lulls where thoughts of you being away brought me so much pain Wanda always had to calm me down. It was good practice for her to not use her powers destructively.” Brock says, raising a hand to curl it into Jack’s hair.

“Please keep me in the loop. I know you think it’s safer for me on a secret government task force, but really Brock it’s by your side,” Jack deadpans, and Brock huffs out a laugh and lets his eyes slide shut.

Jack and Brock hear the count down, and Jack grins at Brock when the fireworks go off and drags him into a kiss. Brock is smiling so wide it barely counts as a kiss at this point.

* * *

**2014: Washington, D.C.**

Brock gets the alert. Project Insight has been activated. Brock calls Steve and tells him to be ready to fight with Natasha.

So the plan went to shit. Brock and Jack got the shit beat out of them by Cap in an elevator, Brock thinks he’s still pissed about the Bucky thing.

Steve drops off the map for a while, and Brock has no way of talking to him. He and Jack resort to killing HYDRA off one by one.

Once upon a time, two more would take their place, but Brock knows the numbers are limited here in America. Knows precisely how many people he’ll have to kill to start over. Purge SHIELD of the infiltration.

He’s told by Pierce who hasn’t figured out he’s gone rogue yet, idiot, that the asset has been sent to collect Rogers.

He can guess pretty damn well who the asset is. Brock wants to warn Steve, but he can’t get in contact with him, and when they find him, it’s too late. Steve is staring hopelessly at Bucky in the road.

They have to arrest him, and Jack has a gun to Steve’s head, he looks unsure of what to do. “Stand down, not now,” Brock hisses for the people of the team who are HYDRA; he still has his cover right now.

Brock did not expect the Winter Soldier to throw Steve off so far he froze in the middle of traffic.

To be so broken by lost love, he doesn’t even fight the arrest. They were never supposed to arrest him. It takes him a long time to shake himself out of his shock before he makes his escape. He clearly loves Bucky deeply.

Brock imagines himself in Steve’s shoes a few hundred years from now, who knows if Jack will be alive or not.

A helicarrier goes down, and Brock pulls Steve off a riverbank. A good time maybe not, but at least HYDRA has been exposed subtraction of Brock and Jack mentioned anywhere in there. Any mentions of Sinthea are in history books as the daughter of a mad man.

Brock orders the Winter Soldier be brought to him, and he realizes that this is barely a man anymore and certainly not the man Steve loves. Still, he orders him to sit down in a warehouse.

A bruised and broken Steve comes with Natasha and their new friend Sam Wilson. Brock is pretty sure Clint knows him somehow.

“Soldier, this man is no longer your target. He is an ally treat him as such” Brock orders.

“He doesn’t know me,” Steve breaths out raw and broken from his throat.

“I knew him,” Natasha says, looking at him closer and remembering the man who trained her. She didn’t know he was also the Winter Soldier at the time.

“Maybe Stark can help him,” Jack speaks up, and Steve just kneels in front of a still Bucky and stares up at him like an angel has been handed over to him.

“We’ll leave you to it,” Brock says, and Jack follows him out of the warehouse.

“That was a disaster. I’m exhausted forever now,” Jack groans, holding his head. He follows Brock to their car, but they aren’t driving towards the city. Jack gave him a look, and Brock smiles.

“We’re going to New York. Steve is going to meet us, and we’re going to Sokovia. Sin is going to meet us there,” Brock explains, and Jack nods leaning back in his seat.


	7. Chapter 7

**2015: Sokovia**

Brock dodges a blast from a HYDRA gun and cracks it over the soldier's head. Wanda had come to him in a dream warning him HYDRA had figured out how to utilize Loki's power source. 

It was nearly the same as the tesseract. Thor seems more than determined to retrieve it, and Brock hears a loud growl. 

Not like the Hulk's bellow of rage but a controlled attack from Jack. He turns to see Jack leap on top of a guard and tear at his throat. Stark is trying to find a way into the base, and Brock turns to see guards in a row blown back and knocked out on the ground. 

"Shit," Stark shouts out. 

"Language," Steve responds, and Brock smirks a little playing into that old man stereotype of little much there Steve. 

He's heard some of the most creative and vulgar series of profanities out of that man's mouth. 

Brock watches Steve throw a motorcycle at a truck of them and wonders how worried about Bucky he is. He's more violent today. 

Pietro nods to him and speeds off. "Pietro Maximoff is on the field, he's the fast one watch out don't hit him" Brock reports, and Steve confirms the don't hit him order. 

Steve and Thor blow a path through the soldiers, and they keep advancing. Clint sees a blast coming towards him, but he is standing on the other side of a tree that got hit, and Hulk runs through the bunker, destroying it.

"Drawbridge is down people," Stark tells them, and Steve turns to the young man with white hair standing next to him. 

He looks at the shield, and in seconds Steve is gasping against a wall in front of some stairs. God, he really is fast. 

Steve sees an open door at the top of the stairs and runs up them. He is immediately encased in red, and his mind his opened for a moment. 

"You are the Captain, Brock has so much respect for you," a woman says, and Steve can move. He turns to the source of the voice and sees it is a woman with long brown hair sitting on a desk. Dozens of dead scientists behind her. "Just like going to sleep," she grins wide and unhinged. 

"Wanda?" Steve guesses and steps forward. 

"Yes, you met my brother Pietro. As I understand it, you are looking for this," Wanda says, handing over Loki's scepter from behind her. 

Steve observes her carefully with a perfectly reasonable amount of wariness Brock had told her she could do anything she could think of. Still, she and her brother are 19 what do they know of the world. 

"You may have been born long ago, dear Captain, but you're barely twenty-nine. You're what a decade older than me?" Wanda asks, smiling, and he looks up his mind; it was open to her even when holding the scepter. 

"I'll take that back, Cap," Tony says, appearing behind them. She tenses, seeing him, and Steve hands over the scepter without hesitation and Tony is gone. 

"You should watch him. The scepter corrupts your mind, and he has quite the mind to corrupt," Wanda says, and Steve looks up. 

"You didn't warn me," Steve says. 

"You want one thing, Captain, and you have him. I might be able to help him," she adds, and Steve looks like he might cry. 

"Wanda," Brock shouts, and she hops off the table and hugs him. Jack, still in wolf form, walks up, and red pets him. 

"Amazing, his mind is just as clear, but his senses sharper," Wanda says and smiles at how much calmer Brock is besides Jack. Pietro is overseeing them, and she lifts her hand to him, and he comes over to her, lacing his fingers with hers. 

"To the ship?" Pietro asks, and Brock nods. They follow, and he is running laps ahead, making sure they remain safe. Steve looks up at the red shield around them as they do walk, and Pietro passes through safely. 

They make it back to the ship without any trouble, and Natasha takes off. Jack turns back from his wolf form. It was much easier now that he could control it, so his clothes didn't rip.

* * *

**2015: New York City**

Brock walks beside Wanda with Jack on his other side and Pietro on the other side of Wanda. 

Steve is kneeling beside Bucky, and Wanda nods to Steve, who nods back. She places a hand on his forehead, able to dive deeper with physical contact. Bucky relaxes no longer sitting up at attention almost asleep, but his eyes are glowing red. 

Wanda plucks through his mind removing the triggers and soothing his guilt from specific memories. She brings Bucky to the front as if he has been frozen, just like Steve. She places his memories of being the Winter Soldier behind a red wall where her magic will continue to soothe them and relax his mind. 

Bucky falls asleep as soon as she pulls away from his mind, as it's no longer active. "He will remember you now," Wanda confirms. 

"Thank you," Steve says and continues kneeling beside Bucky. 

Brock presses a kiss to Jack's temple before they leave. Wanda smiles and goes with Pietro as well. 

\-- 

Brock is drinking with Jack in his hotel room when they get a call. It's from Steve. 

"What's up, Steve?" Brock asks, and Jack scowls slightly, but Brock doesn't see. 

"Tony built a murder bot using Loki's scepter," Steve says in a rush. 

"Didn't Wanda tell you to watch him?" Brock demands. 

"Yeah, well, I thought Bruce had it handled, but Tony is a force to be reckoned with not reasoned with," Steve tells him. 

"So, you want our help?" Brock asks. 

"Yes, please, you know, HYDRA stuff. Maybe they have files," Steve asks. 

"I do, but whatever Stark did is what Stark did. And I know HYDRA won't be able to match it. We should try and understand what he built," Brock says, and Jack stands up going to get their

stuff. 

"So, you'll come to Stark tower?" Steve asks. 

"We'll come to Stark tower," Brock agrees and hangs up. "Sorry, darling," Brock says, and Jack just kisses him and shoves a bag in his arms. 

* * *

**2015: Former HYDRA weapons plant, the current base of Ultron**

Brock groans as he wakes up in a HYDRA base with Natasha beside him. So Ultron was a bigger deal than they thought he would be. Of course, he was the murder love robot of Stark and Banner, so what was to be expected. 

Brock turns to Natasha, and she is already working on the radio. 

He leans against the door and starts listening to Ultron's plans. Scarily similar to HYDRA's solution to fixing the world. 

Destroying to rebuild. Maybe Stark was a little crazier than they all thought. 

Or maybe his ideas without a moral compass were crazy. Brock has, in his life, has only met eccentric smart people. Who are so smart they have to the concept of life outside their own minds. 

Natasha is using Morse code, and he knows Clint would have started looking for her as soon as she was taken. 

They were going to be found Brock had no doubt of that. 

\--

Jack growls and slams his fist into a wall leaving a dent.

"Calm down," Clint growls. "We're not doing them any good like this," he hisses and hears the beeping starts. Finally, Nat was contacting him. 

Stark had, of course, decided the thing to fix his killer robot problem was an android with the full power of whatever powered Loki's scepter. 

Steve was less than pleased with his team at this moment, and Bucky, of course, is insisting on helping. Which is only stressing Steve out further.

Jack knows Natasha and Brock will be fine, but he's pissed they were taken at all. 

"Three minutes," Steve says. 

"Can I bargain for four?" Bucky smirks a sniper rifle slung on his back and a pistol at his side. His metal arm is powered up, and his hair is cut off again. 

He's clean-shaven, and Steve stares. This was really his Bucky. 

"Please stay here," Steve begs half-heartedly, knowing it will do nothing to dissuade Bucky from being there to protect him. 

"Nice try Stevie" Bucky scoffs, and Steve sighs going to suit up. 

* * *

**2015: Sokovia**

When they go to Sokovia, they know they need to get the people out. Wanda starts the evacuation while Pietro gets the police involved. 

Jack goes with Bruce to get Natasha and Brock. She promptly kicks Bruce down a vat. Jack glances at her before the Hulk launches out and huffs. 

"What" Natasha shrugs, and then the island is rising. 

They climb onto the Hulk's back before they are launched into the air and get on the now sky island. 

"Shit," Brock says, and Jack yanked him into a kiss before he launches off in wolf form. 

Brock smiles after him before he runs to kill some fucking robots. 

The helicarrier comes thankfully, and they start to evacuate the remainder of the people. 

They go to the center, start fighting the hordes of robots that want to drop the city. Jack gets shot in the arm by a wayward shot from Stark, which allows one of the bots to open fire. 

He gets shot twice in his back before an arrow drops the bot from the sky. "Jack," Brock says, ripping apart a robot without any struggle and landing beside him. 

Pietro grabs Jack and brings him to one of the evac ships. Brock only hears Jack's whimpers as he tears through the robots. 

They leave Wanda in charge of the switch and go to the streets. Clint runs for a little boy and sees death about to come. He is then on a ship Pietro standing next to him, holding an arm of one

of the robots. 

He rushes back into the fray, and then the island falls. Brock watches Steve leap onto one of the transport ships and stare down at them. 

Brock thinks of Jack as he starts to lift up off the ground. Vision is flying above, scanning for any trace of Ultron left. 

Brock is covered in red and yelps as he's launched onto the deck of the helicarrier. A few paces down from where the Hulk is setting Natasha. 

Vision dives down to where the Hulk just threw the remaining piece of Ultron. Wanda lands next to him on her feet before Vision flies high above the city. 

Lighting breaks the city in a thousand pieces, but Brock sees the red force field that catches them all. 

Wanda is straining terribly, and inch by inch, they fall slowly and together. She shifts them over the ocean and breathes out slowly. 

Brock stays by her, his thoughts on Jack, but she needs him right now. Wanda is shaking from the force of the debris, and when it's a few feet above, she lets the debris drop. 

She falls back on the ship, and he scoops her up. Natasha is waiting in the doorway. 

Pietro takes Wanda from his arms, and Brock rushes down to see Jack in the med wing. He is still in wolf form, snapping at anyone who tries to get close and whimpering. 

"Jack, they have to take the bullets out," Brock soothes, brushing his cheek. 

Jack relaxes under his touch and lets the doctor work. Brock winces every time Jack cries in pain, and soon enough, all the bullets are out. 

Brock watches him turn back, and his heart unclenches. If there was thing Brock wouldn't be able to handle, it would be losing Jack. He has to get them out of this. 

\-- 

Jack wakes up in a bed bay and glances over at Brock, sitting beside his bed. "Sokovia, what happened?" Jack asks. 

"We won. Banner's missing, though," Brock says, and Jack looks at the ceiling tiles. 

"Was I shot?" he asks, and from Brock's wince, that's a yes. "I'm okay" Jack promises him sitting up. 

"Okay," Brock says but just pushes him back down on the bed. "We can go in a little bit," he smiles softly, lacing their fingers together and moving his chair closer. 

Jack rolls his eyes but nods, allowing Brock to feel his pulse and grin at him like an idiot. He'd let any type of coddling happen if means Brock keeps looking at him like that. 


	8. Chapter 8

**2014: Virginia**

Jack gapes up at the large house that was no doubt once a plantation as Brock pulls into the driveway.

Expensive cars and bikes litter the lawn. Brock gets out, and Jack follows still impressed when he feels a cool hand slip into his.

They walk into the front to see women and a few men counting money, and guns are almost pulled. "Hold, it's Brock," a woman who leans against the back wall says, and they return to their work.

"Brock?" Sin asks at the top of the stairs and drops her sword. She flew down the stairs and hugged him tight while her crew watches. "Ah, I saw the news; of course, you would leave HYDRA behind in the most dramatic of fashions" Sin laughs leading them into a kitchen.

"How did you go last time?" Jack asks.

"Oh, we went from Switzerland to Paris as a citizen of the U.K. It was easy enough to do. Like we literally got in a car and drove away," Sin smirks, and Brock rolls his eyes. He remembers their fear and panic as they did so, it was never so easy.

Brock lets Sin tell Jack all the stories she wants and threaten him while he watches just content to be in their presence.

She expressed her disappointment she couldn't kill HYDRA in Sokovia, and Brock suggests introducing her for real this time to Steve Rogers.

"Maybe," Sin says and hops up on the counter. "So you two pulled your shit together, hmm" she smirks at them and looks at Jack.

"Yeah, I guess we did after all," Jack shrugs. He honestly expected them to not and that they were going to miss their opportunity.

"Feel free to explore Jack. I need to speak with my brother," Sin says, her cold, nearly white eyes meeting his green.

Jack nods and walks outside, breathing in the trees. In moments he is running through the woods.

"A werewolf, huh?" Sin asks Brock, who shrugs.

"Love is love, is it not Sinthea?" he says, and she kicks him lightly in the side as he leans against the counter. "I really do love him," Brock says, and Sin regards him with a look.

"You're going to leave SHIELD now, aren't you?" Sin asks.

"Soon as we get Wanda and Pietro here, and safe you know not branded as war criminals than yeah. I'm going to leave," Brock nods to her looking up.

"Because he'll follow you?" Sin asks, remembering them leave HYDRA and how he didn't even get in the car until she did.

"I can't let him get hurt Sin," Brock tells her. "I've seen what it's done to Steve how horrible he looks whenever I mention the love of his life. I can't lose him, who knows how long I'll ever even have with him," Brock whispers, and she nods, clicking her tongue.

"You are doing that whole overprotective thing again, but he is a fucking werewolf Brock" Sin says and slides off the counter, patting his cheek. "Be careful with his heart Brock, and that means not belittling him?" she says and walks away from an apparent dismissal from her house. She isn't that pleased with him, not yet.

Brock finds Jack walking around the property in wolf form and nods to the car. The wolf bounds towards him, and Brock gets in the car. Moments later, Jack is climbing in, and his eyes are fading from yellow to green again.

\--

Brock takes them back towards D.C., and Mace is in his apartment covered in blood. "Jeff," Brock shouts, letting go of Jack's hand.

"You could have warned me the entire team was going to try and kill me," Mace gasps out, annoyed.

"The entire team?" Jack asks, and Brock turns to him.

"STRIKE teams, delta, beta, and omega. Were basically all HYDRA members. It was the alpha task force I protected," Brock says, and Mace is glaring.

"I can't believe you two were double agents and never thought to tell me. I could have helped," Mace huffs out.

"Jeffery Mace, the patriot, the modern-day Captain America. Yes, I can see how HYDRA would have had no suspicion with you," Brock says, rolling his eyes. "Look a bit of a confession. I'm a lot older than I look," Brock begins.

"Cause you're a vampire. Brock, I've seen you in the field throw a man with one hand, and you really need a better system than a black coffee tumbler to hide the scent of blood" Mace laughs at him, smiling.

"Right ok, at least I never let anyone know about your Project Patriot upgrades" Brock laughs, and Mace rolls his eyes and stands up.

"I'm using your shower and borrowing clothes. Honestly," Mace says and walks away.

"He trusts you," Jack notes, and Brock nods. Sitting on his couch and Jack follows suit.

"Fury faked his death," Brock adds, and Jack groans into his shoulder.

"Does it ever stop? The lies, the double-crossing, the whatever?" Jack demands to know. Brock shakes his head and presses a kiss to the top of Jack's head.

"Nope," Brock says and laces their fingers together. The sound of the water from the shower is calming, and Brock seems content to lie with Jack.

"When are we going for Loki's staff?" Jack wonders.

"Soon as Cap is ready," Brock tells him, brushing his hair back. Jack relaxes into the feel, and Brock smirks petting him more.

Mace comes out of the bathroom in Brock's sweatpants and a t-shirt as promised before he sits down on a chair next to the couch. "You're a dick," Mace says to Brock, and Jack laughs.

Brock rolls his eyes and looks right at Mace. "You can handle yourself, Jeff, don't pretend it was a challenge to fight them off," Brock scoffs.

"I knew them, trained some of them," Mace hisses at him, and Brock shuts up. He never thought of it that way. To him, they were more HYDRA, but he had trained them too, had taught them how to fight.

Jack squeezes his hand, and Brock stares at Mace. He would do well to take over STRIKE.

"Anyone else fake their deaths recently?" Mace asks.

"Coulson did, but he's working with the Inhumans," Brock says, and they turn to him.

"How do you just know all of this" Jack asks.

"Level nine clearance the same as Hill. She is the administrator of all of SHIELDs personnel. Fury deals with the council and the big threats. I oversee every task force with her, not just STRIKE," Brock tells them.

"But your card it says level eight," Mace says, furrowing his brow.

"Me being level nine is level nine clearance. Hill needed help, and I offered. She's more than competent that's why she's in charge while we wait for Fury" Brock shrugs and turns to stare at Jack.

"I will let myself out then. I swear Brock you ever not let me in on something like this again, and I'll kill you," Mace warns before he leaves. Jack is quiet as he curls closer to Brock, breathing in his scent. "Please let me in more," Jack says, shocked at how little he knows of Brock.

"This is why I didn't want to fall for you in the start, darling. I can't tell you these things and not just for your safety. I have massive amounts of power in your life, and it isn't fair. I need you to

smack me upside the head if I start to take advantage of you," Brock tells him. Not that it will matter in a few month's time when they are free of SHIELD.

"Ok," Jack agrees, and he feels annoyed at being kept in the dark, but he understands what Brock does for the country requires a bit of secrecy.

Brock pulls Jack closer to him and thinks of irrational fear and anger that gripped him when Cap knocked Jack out. He knew Steve would never hurt Jack, not really. One punch to the head, and Jack dropped.

He wasn't immortal. He was killable. Brock has no idea what can kill him, but he also has no interest in trying to find out.

* * *

**2015: Avengers headquarters, Upstate New York**

Brock strolls up to Hill and Coulson in the shooting range, where he asked to meet them. Jack doesn't even know he came up here.

Fury was still under the radar, and after the disaster that was Sokovia, he has a lot of work to do.

"What can we do for you, Rollins?" Hill asks, and he hands over his badge.

"I want to retire and give my position to Jeffery Mace," he says, and they stare at him like he's lost it.

"Why-" Coulson begins.

"Is Mace even ready? How about the rest of your team?" Hill demands cutting Coulson off.

"Mace is more than ready, and I expect Jack will follow me," Brock shrugs, which answers Coulson's question.

"If we need you? If the world needs you?" Hill asks.

"Call us," Brock smirks at her and sighs. "Look, Maria, Phil, honestly it's been a good time, and I love the work. But I- Jack got shot in Sokovia and he almost- god I almost" Brock trails off his smile falling. "I can't lose him, so I'm done, and he'll follow," Brock shrugs.

"That's messed up," Coulson says and receives a glare.

"Didn't ask for your opinion Coulson. You have my two weeks notice," Brock snaps, and Hill reaches out and claps him on the shoulder.

"Thank you, Brock, for all you've done for us. Please spend this time letting Mace know his duties," Hill says, and Brock nods. She nods back to dismiss him before he walks off.

Coulson shakes his head, shocked that STRIKE just lost its best leader yet. But Rollins seems confident in Mace.

\--

Jack places a cup of blood on the table and stares at the raw meat on his plate when he hears Brock walking up the stairs. This is an absurd dinner, and he laughs to himself when Brock walks in the door.

"Hello, darling," Brock grins, walking over to kiss him. "Smells delicious," Brock says, and his eyes turn red.

Jack smiles, letting his eyes turn yellow just to match Brock before they sit down. "So how did the meeting with Hill go. Long talk?" Jack asks.

"Oh no, she was in New York, so I caught a flight," Brock says, and Jack raises an eyebrow. Yes, the casual day flight from D.C. to New York. "So I resigned," Brock tells him, and Jack coughs, looking even more shocked.

"What- I how" Jack sighs he shouldn't be shocked with all the let's say surprises Brock likes to spring on him.

"I just am not feeling it anymore," Brock says.

"Is this because of Sokovia?" Jack demands watching Brock's face.

"Honestly, partially and not just you getting shot. This is out of my depth. I just, gods and magic, robots. Cities dropping from the sky. I love helping people, but I'm not so sure I can be as useful as one of Stark's bots. Mace is new and fresh, but he is experienced so he can lead the team just as well as if not better than I ever could. Jack, I'm tired," Brock sighs out, and he didn't even think about all that till just now.

Jack reaches across the table and takes his hands. "As long as you're doing this for you, I will follow you wherever you go," Jack vows.

"Bit hypocritical, but I appreciate it" Brock smiles at him and sue him for wanting Jack safe. He'd live with the guilt if it meant Jack lives.

* * *

**2015: Northern California**

Jack gave his notice as well, and a month later, they had packed their bags, and Jack trusts Brock to pick where they end up.

Jack smiles at Brock as they drive into the woods up where he used to be a ranger right to a log cabin that has clearly been newly built. "You didn't," Jack says in awe, looking up at it.

"I had this built last year. I was ready in case the whole takedown HYDRA bit went way too sideways for me" Brock shrugs and leads Jack inside by the hand. Jack looks up; it's a two-story, large glass window. Tech everywhere so they won't be out of the loop; that's for sure.

"For us," Jack mumbles, sitting on the couch, and Brock follows.

"For us," he confirms, kissing his lips and pressing him closer with a hand under his shirt.

Brock's phone rings. "Ugh not now," he huffs, turning to it. He clicks the mute button and shrugs. "It's just Clint," he grins, but Jack presses a finger to his lips and stands up.

"I'm going to get our bags," Jack says, walking outside, shaking his head. Brock groans and answers the phone.

Jack opens the trunk of their car and leans against it, breathes out giddy as hell. He never thought he'd get Brock all to himself. With him pulled in so many directions by SHIELD but they were free.

He can see his parents again, Brock can be with Sin again without looking over their shoulders. And barring any more end of the world stuff, he could stay here and never have to go on some life-threatening mission again. How likely was another world-ending disaster after two so close together? Really it's not like they're regularities or anything.

Jack gets to have this, and he thought oh so long ago that when he was told he was a werewolf that his life had ended.

Jack grins to himself and runs inside with their bags to see Brock drinking from a blood bag his eyes red as he jokes with Clint over the phone, and his heart aches to hold the vampire right in front of him.

No one could take this from them, not now, not ever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We made it. Woo! I hope you all really enjoyed this story. I know I really enjoyed writing it. After months of writing and rewriting, I am so pleased with how this turned out. 
> 
> I would like to thank once again everyone who was apart of this journey.
> 
> Love, 
> 
> Rainbow820


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